Malaysia to Maintain Existing Biodiesel Mandate

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin has said the country will maintain the status quo on biodiesel mandate, Bernama reported on June 02.  She assured the Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA) that the ministry was all ears to the group’s proposal that Malaysia should retain its existing biodiesel mandate.

It will be recalled that earlier MBA has highlighted why Malaysia should not reduce or stop its biodiesel mandate as the biodiesel industry hardly consumed one million tons of palm oil annually as opposed to over 40 million tons used globally, saying that any knee-jerk reaction to banning biofuels derived from vegetable oils would cause havoc in the global vegetable oil market.