Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) and Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) organised a talk titled “Fourth Industrial Revolution: Socio-Economic Issue in Oil Palm Industry” at Sungai Long Campus on 22 November 2017.
Balu delivering his talk
The speaker invited to deliver the talk was Director of Economics and Industry Development Division of Malaysian Palm Oil Board Balu Nambiappan. At the talk, Balu provided an overview of palm oil industry to the audience and advised them to access the words properly in a particular domain of knowledge before knowing the things better. He said, “Many people are actually having problems with distinguishing between oil palm and palm oil. Oil palm is the general term of palm tree, whereas palm oil is the product produced from oil palm fruit.”
During the talk, he also described several issues and consequences that have impacted the palm oil industry. He explained that Malaysia had been one of the leaders in palm oil production but countries especially the European Union (EU) wants Malaysia to adopt their standard. He indicated that ‘no palm oil’ or ‘palm oil-free’ labelling is discriminatory and unfair, and the generic terms like ‘vegetable oils’ should not be used to denigrate palm oil.
“Most of the consumers have no idea that palm oil is actually in the food they are consuming. This is because the word ‘palm oil’ is rarely used to display on the product labels. It is discrimination against palm oil,” said Balu. He mentioned that the allegations made by western NGOs were baseless, where they claimed that palm oil cultivation was damaging the environment, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity.
Moreover, he highlighted the importance of palm oil and also gave a comprehensive SWOT analysis and outlook of the Malaysian oil palm industry to the participants. “The consumption of palm oil is expected to increase. The industry will continue to be very sun-rising in line with the growing demand of palm oil,” said Balu.
The talk then ended with a souvenir presentation by CSDCSR Chairperson Dr Mohammad Falahat Nejadmahani to Balu as a token of appreciation.
Dr Falahat (right) presenting a token of appreciation to Balu
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