Malaysia is pushing to increase its palm oil exports and is aiming for Morocco to become a key destination according to Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. He said the Asian country hopes to increase its palm oil exports to Morocco that totaled about 9,657 tons in 2008.
This could be an important factor in Morocco’s ever-growing search for alternative energy as palm oil is a feedstock for biofuels. Large companies, like Shell, have upped their sustainability efforts by delving more into the biofuels sector. Although some analysts say that significant commercial quantities of competitive biofuels are not expected to become available for at least five years, research and development for the biofuels industry as increased so much that instead of only first and second generation biofuels, third and fourth generations are under development.
This could be significant in other ways. The Moroccan economy could have more investors looking to help the country turn the palm oil into an alternative energy by building plants, and allowing for more concerted efforts for research and development locally.