Pakistan eyes RI as new palm oil supplier
Pakistan eyes RI as new palm oil supplier
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuter): Pakistan wants to diversify its sources of palm oil and is looking to Indonesia as a potential supplier, the head of the state-run Trading Corp of Pakistan (TCP) said yesterday.
"We are concentrating on diversifying our source of supply of palm oil," Nooruddin Ahmad told Reuters in an interview.
Malaysia is now the top supplier to Pakistan, which bought 984,000 tons of palm oil worth US$738 million in fiscal 1995/96 (July-June).
"We've given a special focus to Indonesia, which is emerging as a major supplier of palm oil. As its plantations mature, it is likely to become the number one producer," Ahmad said.
The TCP chairman said Pakistan wanted to buy more palm oil, tea, rubber, petrochemicals, polyester yarn and machinery from Indonesia, and could supply cotton and textiles in return.
"They (the Indonesians) need cotton, yarn, fabrics, and they are also looking to Pakistan as a gateway for their consumer and industrial goods to Central Asia as well as West Asia," he said.
"We can market our goods and consumer goods, and can use (Indonesia) as a springboard for neighboring ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries," Ahmad added.
The TCP and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) have drawn up a plan to boost two-way trade to $1 billion in the next two years. No figures were available for 1995/96, but bilateral trade was worth $212 million in 1994/95.
Ahmad said the ICCI would hold a trade exhibition in Karachi from September 12-16 and a seminar on September 13, and the TCP would organize a trade exhibition in Jakarta on October 17-22.
He said the TCP, Pakistan's biggest trading house, planned to double its business to $1 billion in 1996/97 from $500 million in 1995/96.
Apart from buying palm oil for the Ghee Corp of Pakistan, the TCP is a major sugar importer this year, ordering 225,000 tons for delivery by September 30.
"If need be we will import more sugar," Ahmad said. "We are keeping an eye on the market situation."