Malaysia's sugar purchases from India hit record amid diplomatic spat: Report

[BL33D]

India’s exports of sugar to Malaysia so far in 2020 have nearly tripled over the figure for all of last year, as Kuala Lumpur steps up purchases to placate New Delhi in a trade dispute that halted its palm oil exports to India, trade officials said.
The record buying could also help India, the world’s biggest producer of sugar, to cut stockpiles that are squeezing domestic prices.
India had been the biggest buyer of Malaysian palm oil for five years, but purchases ground to a halt after the January curbs, a retaliation for then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s criticism of New Delhi’s policy regarding its Muslim minority.
“This year Malaysia was aggressively buying Indian raw sugar, which was a pleasant surprise,” Praful Vithalani, president of the All India Sugar Trade Association (AISTA), told Reuters.

The trade body’s data shows Malaysia has imported 324,405 tonnes of sugar from India this year. That compares with India’s exports last year of around 110,000 tonnes and a 2008 record of 313,406 tonnes, according to trade estimates. Malaysia imported a total of 1.95 million tonnes of raw sugar in 2019, data from the International Sugar Organization on Refinitiv Eikon shows. It typically buys more from Brazil and Thailand than from India.
Kuala Lumpur’s sugar purchases from India could easily surpass 400,000 tonnes in 2020, as some shipments are still in the pipeline, said a Mumbai-based dealer of a global trading house.

Kuala Lumpur may have asked refiners to give preference to India in sugar purchases, said another Mumbai-based dealer, adding, “It’s an effort to please India.”
Both dealers sought anonymity as they were not allowed to speak with media.
In January, MSM Malaysia Holdings Berhad, the southeast Asian nation’s top sugar refiner, said it would buy 130,000 tonnes of raw sugar from India, worth 200 million ringgit ($49.20 million), in the first quarter.

Malaysia has set itself a month’s deadline to resolve the dispute over palm oil, its new commodities minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali said on Wednesday, adding that he wanted to send a delegation to India as soon as possible.

“Malaysia can show that it is buying more goods from India than Indonesia,” a Mumbai-based refiner said, adding that higher imports of farm commodities would give Malaysia grounds to argue in negotiations that New Delhi should resume palm oil purchases.

Indonesia is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, followed by Malaysia.
India, hoping to reduce its vast surplus stocks of sugar, has approved an export subsidy of Rs 10,448 ($142) per tonne of the sweetener for the marketing year that will end on September 30.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...plomatic-spat-report/articleshow/74587515.cms

 

[Protest_again]

So much better after old Mahathir was sidelined. India will reciprocate now that Malaysia is full on courting India.

Malaysia aims to resolve palm oil spat with India within month's time

 

[Chhatrapati]

Yeah well, Chinese coronavirus trumped all. Demand will decline as economies go into recession, including in China and India. Commodity prices are down, long term prices are also going down.

 

[Baba_Yaga]

Cutting off palm oil imports from Malaysia was an extremely immature decision, can only be expected from this government. Way to go, bullying small countries that speak against you. This is not how countries operate. Just because someone speaks against you, doesn't mean he is your enemy.

 

[Arulmozhi Varman]

Cutting off palm oil imports from Malaysia was an extremely immature decision, can only be expected from this government. Way to go, bullying small countries that speak against you. This is not how countries operate. Just because someone speaks against you, doesn't mean he is your enemy.

India was patient enough. It's only after repeated lies on India other legislation like CAA that India decided to stamp it's foot. We didn't even mention Malaysia in any of our trade issues. Just stopped unrefined palm oil from all countries.

Now that the old Mahathir is gone, new leadership and the King is eager to establish relations with India, our point is now taken seriously. China bullies everyone it can. We bully countries we can. We can't bully US or China.
That's a fair game of geopolitics.

 

[third eye]

Cutting off palm oil imports from Malaysia was an extremely immature decision, can only be expected from this government. Way to go, bullying small countries that speak against you. This is not how countries operate. Just because someone speaks against you, doesn't mean he is your enemy.

In the same tone , just because someone stops importing Palm oil from you , it doesn’t mean he is your enemy.
We all should weigh our words , shouldn’t we ?

 

[Baba_Yaga]

In the same tone , just because someone stops importing Palm oil from you , it doesn’t mean he is your enemy.
We all should weigh our words , shouldn’t we ?

China doesn't exactly weigh words on Kashmir, but we don't have the balls to do something like this against them. That's why we pick on countries like Malaysia to feel good about ourselves.

 

[cloud4000]

So much better after old Mahathir was sidelined. India will reciprocate now that Malaysia is full on courting India.

Malaysia aims to resolve palm oil spat with India within month's time

The problem was always with Mahatir, not with Malaysia.

 

[Chhatrapati]

China doesn't exactly weigh words on Kashmir, but we don't have the balls to do something like this against them. That's why we pick on countries like Malaysia to feel good about ourselves.

To feel good? Show me one country who has made such a scathing remark against India apart from Pakistan? Turkey raised some noise on Indian actions, which is odd but fine. Mahatir went all in, he has zero disputes with India, he is not a party to any of the disputes, yet he had the veracity to criticizing our national policies, why should we let that slide?

China made no such remarks against India and was never undiplomatic despite being a party in the dispute.

 

[Protest_again]

China doesn't exactly weigh words on Kashmir, but we don't have the balls to do something like this against them. That's why we pick on countries like Malaysia to feel good about ourselves.

You do what you can and how you can. Welcome to real politic.

 

[third eye]

China doesn't exactly weigh words on Kashmir, but we don't have the balls to do something like this against them. That's why we pick on countries like Malaysia to feel good about ourselves.

What in your opinion can India do on imports from China without hurting its own economy

in case of Palm oil options existed & exercised

 

[Arulmozhi Varman]

What in your opinion can India do on imports from China without hurting its own economy

in case of Palm oil options existed & exercised

Follow the Chinese. Do you know the issues faced by companies when trying to export to China? They sit in customs for days, going here and there. We should do the same for companies exporting from China and make them relocate here.
Do you know Chinese customs don't allow an damn computer monitor into china if declared in Customs. Even though it's not banned, it's simply not allowed in even thought it might be part of one whole system. Cos higher ups discourage imports of certain items manufactured in China.

 

[Kaniska]

Cutting off palm oil imports from Malaysia was an extremely immature decision, can only be expected from this government. Way to go, bullying small countries that speak against you. This is not how countries operate. Just because someone speaks against you, doesn't mean he is your enemy.

Why are you so worried about Malaysia than India? Any special love for them more than interest of our nation?

India was patient enough. It's only after repeated lies on India other legislation like CAA that India decided to stamp it's foot. We didn't even mention Malaysia in any of our trade issues. Just stopped unrefined palm oil from all countries.

Now that the old Mahathir is gone, new leadership and the King is eager to establish relations with India, our point is now taken seriously. China bullies everyone it can. We bully countries we can. We can't bully US or China.
That's a fair game of geopolitics.

Spot on... Relationship are made on mutual respect and understanding the sentiment of Indian people on certain core issues...Malaysia just spoke too much on very sensitive topic which should have been responded in its kind....

And again, in general people of Malaysia and Indonesia are very good people....It is Mahathir who is trying to use India as a pawn to fulfil his ambition to become a leader in the Muslim world...It is good that we responded aggressively...Now Mahathir is gone, we should roll back the restriction that impacts the Malaysian Palm Oil traders.

 

[Arulmozhi Varman]

Why are you so worried about Malaysia than India? Any special love for them more than interest of our nation?



Spot on... Relationship are made on mutual respect and understanding the sentiment of Indian people on certain core issues...Malaysia just spoke too much on very sensitive topic which should have been responded in its kind....

And again, in general people of Malaysia and Indonesia are very good people....It is Mahathir who is trying to use India as a pawn to fulfil his ambition to become a leader in the Muslim world...It is good that we responded aggressively...Now Mahathir is gone, we should roll back the restriction that impacts the Malaysian Palm Oil traders.

Even by his own words he can't talk bout Uighurs cos China will hold his country to ransom. Plus 20% of population is Chinese. But he didn't have the same consideration for around 7% Indian Tamil Malaysians and decided to talk half baked lies.

I think India won't stand down until Malaysian leadership reaches out directly for the damage Mahathir done. And India will try to get her pound of flesh using this issue.

 

[Baba_Yaga]

Why are you so worried about Malaysia than India? Any special love for them more than interest of our nation?



Spot on... Relationship are made on mutual respect and understanding the sentiment of Indian people on certain core issues...Malaysia just spoke too much on very sensitive topic which should have been responded in its kind....

And again, in general people of Malaysia and Indonesia are very good people....It is Mahathir who is trying to use India as a pawn to fulfil his ambition to become a leader in the Muslim world...It is good that we responded aggressively...Now Mahathir is gone, we should roll back the restriction that impacts the Malaysian Palm Oil traders.

I'm far more worried about India than I am about Malaysia. And actions like this make us look like twats. It is common knowledge that Indians are not good at taking criticism. Any foreign cricketer who speaks out or makes a joke about India is immediately bombarded with hundreds of thousands of internet warriors speaking hinglish. And now thanks to this immature govt the same seems to be happening on a larger scale. A single guy in Malaysia who was soon to go anyway spoke something, we started crying and blocked their palm oil, potentially damaging the relationship between the countries for a very long time. Similarly, Jeff Bezos was given a shitty treatment while he was here just because Washington post published some articles that we didn't like, potentially costing us billions of dollars worth in investment. If you do love your country, learn to speak out against actions that make us look like immature retards rather that simply being a blind bhakt.

Transferring a judge who spoke out against Delhi riots, Sedition charges on actors and journalists, deportation of foreign students who participated in CAA protests. All symptoms of the same problem. There is no more room for criticism left both inside and outside the country. They speak out against Pakistan and all they have actually done is turn India into Pakistan. Hilarious