The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), in its industry performance report for March, said that crude palm oil (CPO) stocks decreased by 23.16% to 891,653 tonnes in March from 1.16 million tonnes in February.

Processed palm oil stocks declined 18.56% to 781,391 tonnes from 959,451 tonnes previously.

CPO production, however, rose 2.77% to 1.29 million tonnes in March from 1.25 million tonnes in February, while palm kernel output gained 2.20% to 323,743 tonnes from 316,781 tonnes.

“Palm oil exports increased by 31.76% in March to 1.49 million tonnes from 1.13 million tonnes in February while exports of oleo-chemicals appreciated by 14.28% to 261,049 tonnes,” it said.

MPOB said biodiesel exports in March jumped 118.56% to 32,127 tonnes from the preceding month’s 14,699 tonnes while exports of palm kernel cake eased 7.93% to 193,093 tonnes.

Palm kernel oil exports went up 39.43% in March to 83,503 tonnes from 59,888 tonnes in February.

CPO imports in March remained at 5,895 tonnes while total palm oil imports slipped by 24.25% month-on-month to 39,772 tonnes.