Bursa Malaysia Berhad’s 26th Palm and Lauric Oils Conference & Exhibition (POC) 2015 that concluded successfully today saw close to 2,000 attendees from 67 countries representing the entire value chain including plantation holders, manufacturers, fund managers, traders, financiers, derivatives participants, logistics and infrastructure providers.
Themed “Trade, Hedge and Be Ahead of the Markets”, the discussions at the conference centered on the growing global consumption for oils and oilseeds as well as factors that will affect the volatility of the market going forward in 2015. Key market challenges that were called out include topics on demand from global population growth, increase per capita food consumption driven by rising incomes and urbanisation, dietary shift towards protein and fats as well as uncertainty in the demand for biofuels. These demand-side factors coupled with anticipated downward supply pressures are expected to drive volatility in the palm oil industry.
Dato’ Tajuddin Atan, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia said, “Many expert opinions were shared but most concurred on an expected increase in market volatility. In view of this, we expect increased hedging activities from market participants and traders to manage risk. Trading futures is an efficient tool and the recent achievement of Bursa Malaysia’s FCPO in breaching the 10 million contracts traded mark in 2014, which equates to over 250 million metric tonnes, underscores the FCPO as the global benchmark and a robust hedging tool.”
POC 2015 showcased some of the world’s most influential industry opinion leaders, including Dorab Mistry, Director of Godrej International Limited; Dr. James Fry, Chairman of LMC International Ltd; Thomas Mielke, Executive Director, ISTA Mielke GmbH (Oil World); Ms Emily French, Managing Director, ConsiliAgra and Timothy J. Andriesen, Managing Director, Agricultural Commodities & Alternative Investments, CME Group to exchange ideas and discuss the price outlook for the industry.
These eminent speakers were featured on various plenaries and roundtable sessions that were centered on innovation and new strategies to address the challenges of the market particularly impacts from the volatility of crude oil price and global economic uncertainties.
POC is the largest and most respected global palm oil price outlook event, facilitating the exchange of ideas and enabling participants to share their assessments on the developments that will impact the price outlook on the palm and lauric oils market. The number of attendees has grown over the years, reinforcing Malaysia’s position as the global palm oil marketplace and a market that owns the global price benchmark.