New Delhi. Angered by the criticism of India by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Kashmir issue, Indian businessmen have stopped doing new deals of importing palm oil from Malaysia. Although the Indian government has not yet taken any step in this direction, the domestic edible oil industry has started giving a tough response to Malaysia. A top official of the Edible Oil Industry Organization said that the country comes first and business relations later. The country’s oil traders are angry with Malaysia for their anti-India statement on the Kashmir issue, so they have stopped the palm oil import deals to be held for the next month.
Solvent Extractors Association Executive Director Dr. BV Mehta said that our country comes first and business relations come later. Importing palm oil from Malaysia is not our compulsion either, as our options for importing palm oil from Indonesia are open instead of Malaysia. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammed, recently raised the issue of Kashmir in the United Nations General Assembly, saying that despite the proposal of the United Nations on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, India attacked and annexed it. He said, there may have been any reason for this action of India but it is wrong.
India should solve the problem with Pakistan. Dr. Mehta said that India is the biggest buyer of Malaysia’s palm oil and we import more than 3 million tonnes of palm oil annually from Malaysia, but stopping imports from Malaysia is not going to make any difference to us because we will replace Indonesia instead. Can import from Palm.