According to a new report from Business Monitor International, the overall outlook for Malaysian agribusiness is positive, being spurred by private and government investments in the country’s main agricultural sectors of palm oil, sugar and cocoa, and export driven production. As technology improves and replanting continues, growth on palm oil is expected to be 9.7% to 2016-17 to equal 20.6 million tons. Cocoa production is expected to grow 10.2% in the same time period to 10,100 tons due to the Malaysian Cocoa Board distributing high-yielding seeds and government incentives for farmers to switch to cocoa. Sugar consumption growth will be 15% to 2017 driven by the expansion of Malaysia’s soft drink industry. In September Malaysia left the tax on crude palm oil exports unchanged for a seventh month.in an effort to boost exports and avoid inventory build-up. Shipments will be taxed at 4.5% and the reference price was set at US$696 per metric ton- within the minimum for a levy to be applied. This has been viewed as Malaysia’s attempt to support its refined exports and increase its competitiveness with Indonesia.
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