Speaking at the Ghana and Nigeria as the Gateways for Malaysian Palm Oil in West Africa forum, President of Benso Oil Palm Plantation, Samuel Avaala has highlighted that there is a growing market demand for palm oil and its related products in West Africa, especially in Ghana.
The oil palm belt of Africa runs through the southern latitudes of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, la Cote d’ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Beni, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Congo.
“While rainfall has remained the same over the decades, but distribution has changed with more rainfall now even occurring in what used to be the dry season offering Malaysia an opportunity” he said.
However, the biggest opportunity for Malaysia to get into the West Africa palm oil market is the ample available manpower for plantations and large market for products.
“The current population of Western Africa is 374 million and is equivalent to 4.93 percent of the total world population. Now, there is high unemployment among Western Africans, limited formal job opportunities with only 28 percent receiving decent wages. For the long-term, Ghana will surpass Malaysia’s population by 2030 and that is only nine years’ time,” Samuel added.
Samuel concluded that, while Africa accounts for around 12 to 13 percent of the global Crude Palm Oil (CPO) consumption, it only accounts for four percent of the global CPO output and this presents an opportunity for African players as well as ASEA CPO producers looking to tap in the African market.
According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), palm oil export to the Sub-Saharan Africa region has increased in tandem with the increase in total palm oil import from 1.335 million metric tonnes in 2010 to a record high of 2.433 million metric tonnes in 2017, although it regressed a little to 2.326 million metric tonnes in 2018 and 2.015 million metric tonnes in 2019.
