26 COVER STORY
INTERVIEW WITH TAN SRI DATUK DR. YUSOF BASIRON CEO OF MALAYSIAN PALM OIL COUNCIL
Palm biomass has massive potential. The National Biomass Strategy 2020: New Wealth Creation for Malaysia’s Palm Oil Industry report indicates that Malaysian palm oil industry generated an estimated 80mil dry tonnes of palm biomass in 2010 and this would increase to 110mil dry tonnes by 2020.
1
Share with us a bit about yourself as the CEO of MPOC?
2
Briefly describe the history and profile of MPOC?
I joined MPOC in Jan 2006 as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to that, I was the Director General of Malaysian Palm Oil Board for 14 years where I was actively involved in palm oil research.
MPOC is a non-profit organization under the Ministry of Plantation Industries & Commodities Malaysia. It
ASIA PALM OIL MAGAZINE | April-June 2015
was formerly known as Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council (MPOPC) and was incorporated on January 25th 1990 to assume the responsibilities and activities previously undertaken by the Palm Oil Promotion Fund (POPF) Committee. One of the main reasons leading to the establishment of this organization was to address the ‘anti-tropical oils’ campaign in the USA during 1980s. By having MPOPC, we were able to formulate activities in a more systematic way to highlight the health attributes of palm oil to our consumers around the globe. The MPOC name was changed to Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) on April 13th 2006 to reflect our wider scope of responsibilities such as branding of Malaysian palm oil.
