JASIN, 3 July 2017:
The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has urged consumers in the country to switch to the use of palm nut milk as an alternative – to reduce the dependency on coconut milk, besides increasing the use of palm in the country.
MPOB chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah said generally, most of the cooking in Malaysia and the Asian region were based on coconut milk and the shortage in the supply of coconuts always happened when it was not managed properly.
Ahmad said MBOP undertook various researches and trials continually using palm milk to produce food including dodol, cendol, nasi lemak and others which use coconut milk.
“These initiatives are implemented not to stop the dependency on coconut especially coconut milk totally but to provide choices to consumers.
“We cannot depend only on one product (coconut) as it could cause a shortage and we have to get supply from foreign countries particularly during festive seasons.”
Ahmad said the use of palm milk extensively would also help increase the economy of more than 600,000 oil palm smallholders in the country, while able to control the coconut milk price in the market.
Based on research by MPOB’s nutrition experts, he said palm milk contains 50% saturated fat compared with 92% in coconut milk, has lower cholesterol and is good for health.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Kushairi said the production of palm in the country was about 20 million tonnes annually but its domestic consumption was about 10%.
MPOB had implemented various improvements in creating new technologies to produce quality palm milk, that could last longer and could be commercialised widely, he said.
“Until now, only four small and medium enterprises are involved in the production of palm milk in Malaysia. This figure is still small compared with coconut milk entrepreneurs. It has a market but cannot accommodate the demand,” said MPOB director-general Dr Ahmad Kushairi Din.
He said most of the palm milk entrepreneurs were operating in the Klang Valley and MPOB aims to transfer the palm milk production technology to more entrepreneurs who were interested as this industry was projected to expand rapidly over the next few years.
– Bernama