Malaysia says EU deforestation rule hurts its small farmers

Producer group presents petition demanding rollback of regulation

20230316 Palm oil

A worker holds palm oil fruit at a plantation in Slim River, Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur says new EU rules aimed at preventing deforestation discriminate against small producers of palm oil. © Reuters

NORMAN GOH, Nikkei staff writer

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof on Thursday said the European Union's Deforestation Regulation was biased against small-scale producers of palm oil in Malaysia and called on the EU to end its "discrimination" against them.

"Small farmers depend on the export of palm oil, rubber, and other agricultural commodities to support their families," Fadillah said in a statement released Thursday in support of a group representing such farmers, which handed a petition to the Delegation of the EU to Malaysia a day earlier.

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