Pakistan needs to import four times more palm oil to compensate India’s withdrawal

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his nation will import more palm oil from Malaysia, during his two-day working visit to the country.

He said Pakistan would do so to compensate India’s restriction on palm oil purchase from Malaysia.

India came out with the restriction following a remark made by Malaysia’s Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the ongoing Kashmir conflict.

At the 2019 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), he said that India invaded and occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

India was Malaysia’s biggest palm oil buyer, purchasing 4.4 million tonnes of the commodity in 2019.

On the other hand, in 2019, Pakistan reduced its palm oil purchase from Malaysia compared to the year before, dropping from 1.16 to 1.08 million tonnes.

Additionally, the number of palm oil imported by India last year was about four times more than Pakistan.

Thus, it brings up the question of whether Pakistan can truly compensate India’s withdrawal.

The population of India is roughly five times bigger than Pakistan. This means more people would consume palm oil in India, hence the country imported higher quantity of the commodity compared to Pakistan.

Pakistan could improve the demand of palm oil, but it is impossible for the country to substitute India as the top importer of the commodity from Malaysia.