Speakers emphasise on exploring food value chain of palm oil in Pakistan

Islamabad:The speakers at an international seminar on palm oil on Tuesday emphasised on exploring potential of palm oil derivatives beyond culinary applications.

The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Islamabad in collaboration with Comstech jointly organised the international seminar on ‘Sustainability of Palm Oil Industry and its Derivative Products’ at Comstech Auditorium, Islamabad. The international seminar aims to raise more awareness of the sustainability of the palm oil from Indonesia to the Pakistani public and maintain the awareness that the palm oil and its derivative products are not harmful to the health even beneficial for the well-being.

By this seminar, more potential is expected to explore the untapped potential of palm oil derivatives beyond culinary application. In his remarks, Comstech Adviser Prof Dr Syed Khurshid Hasnain mentioned that Comstech have strong commitment to support the natural products coming from the OIC member countries and expect more applied research on more application of the natural products for the industrial purposes that could benefits to the OIC member countries.

He believed that science and technology should be applicable and give economic benefits to the people. On his turn, the Indonesian Chargé D’Affaires, Mr Rahmat Hindiarta Kusuma underlined the importance of palm oil for Indonesia as it contributes to 4.5 per cent to the Country’s GDP, which absorbs more than 17 million direct and indirect workers.

Given its significance, the Government of Indonesia successfully improved the approaches on palm oil production to be more eco-and-labour-friendly. "Please keep up with the Indonesian palm oil in our bilateral trade relations, and let us make it as milestone to improve more trade volumes between the two countries," chargé d’affaires said, inviting the Pakistani business community to participate Trade Expo Indonesia 2024 this October.

The speakers of the seminar are Prof Dedi Budiman Hakim, Bogor Agricultural Institute; Rashed Jan Muhammad, President BQATI; Prof Muhammad Asim Shabir, University of Faisalabad; Djono Albar Burhan, Indonesia Palm Oil Association; Dr Humaira Fatima, Quaid-e-Azam University; and Shahid Pervez, Secretary General of PVMA; and the moderators by Iqra Munawar, PIDE and Shams Abbasi, economic journalist.