KUALA LUMPUR: Primary Industries minister Teresa Kok has reiterated her call for consumers to support palm oil following the French National Assembly’s decision to exclude its use as a biodiesel feedstock.

Describing the French government’s action as a form of discrimination against Malaysia’s most important commodity, she said the ministry would embark on a partnership with non-governmental organisations, schools and different government agencies to embrace a “Malaysia loves palm oil” campaign next year.

“We’d like to have a series of programmes, including the media, to move forward to work with us (on the importance and benefit of palm oil) and treasure Malaysia’s product,“ she said in a press conference today after launching a blood drive and breast cancer awareness campaign here.

“We hope for fair trade with the French government. Palm oil-producing countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia import food and technology from the EU, including France,“ she added. The ministry would try to get smallholders to be certified under the Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) programme in a more “aggressive manner”.

“This is very important and I realised many smallholders do not understand the importance of being MSPO certified. (This is also) to counter the negative campaign from the EU and Western countries. We need to do things correctly. We need to have good practices in our country,“ she said.

She added that Malaysia, together with its trading partners Indonesia and Columbia, would hold a meeting soon on the matter.

Currently, there are 600,000 smallholders who depend on the palm oil trade, she said.