KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 (Bernama) -- Crude palm oil (CPO) price will
likely breach the RM3,000 per tonne level towards the second half of
this year due to production shortfalls, says chief executive officer of
Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron.
For the whole year, the price is expected to hover between RM2,600 and RM3,000
per tonne, he said.
"The price hike can happen very soon or it can happen a bit late due to price
fluctuations.
"If you talk about a single figure of RM3,000 or RM2,600,
fluctuation itself can put the price into this range within a short
period, depending on what news the speculators say," he told reporters
after a roundtable discussion on the palm oil industry hosted by
Bernama.
Last week, CPO price hovered around RM2,600 level and this week, it is trading
around RM2,700 a tonne.
"The experts have generally forecast a higher price to prevail
this year -- around RM2,000 to RM3,500. CPO price is quite capable of
going to a wide range price this year," he said.
Dr Yusof was also optimistic that Malaysia would achieve total CPO
production between 17.5 million tonnes and 18 million tonnes this year
despite labour shortage, uncertain weather conditions and slow
replanting targets.
Malaysia has set 18.1 million tonnes target for total CPO production this year.
