Kuala Lumpur (ANTARA News) - Malaysia does not consider it a problem if Indonesia takes over its place as the world`s largest palm oil producer, local press reported Wednesday.
Indonesia obviously has a bigger plantation area compared to Malaysia, enabling it to produce more of the commodity, Malaysia`s Prime Minister Auk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said here on Tuesday.
"Indonesia potentially can produce more than us and it is up to them how they want to do it, but it does not matter to us," the New Straits Times quoted Badawi as saying.
"We are happy if our friends are doing well, make more money and become richer than us. We are happy for them," Badawi said.
Malaysia and Indonesia are the world`s top two palm oil producers.
Indonesia is expected to produce 17.4 million tons of crude palm oil by the year-end, compared with a projected production of 16.5 million tons for Malaysia.
Indonesia has a total plantation land area of 300 million hectares, of which one third are allocated for oil palm cultivation.
Out of the 100 million hectares, only 6 million are planted, mostly by Malaysian and Indonesian companies.
Malaysia in turn has used up 3.6 million hectares of its oil palm land, and only 1 million hectares are available in the states of Sabah and Sarawak.
Even though Malaysia has limited land, productivity can be doubled to 40 tons of fresh fruit bunches per hectare per year from an average 20 tons currently.
The oil extraction rate can also be raised, to 25 percent, by 2020 from an average of 20 percent currently, Xinhua reported.
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