KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Monsoon flooding across parts of major rubber and palm oil producer Malaysia could cause rubber supply to drop by 30,000 tonnes and palm oil output to decline by around 15 to 30 percent in December, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Rubber supply is expected to “reduce drastically” in early 2015 due to floods, Malaysian plantation industries and commodities minister Douglas Uggah Embas told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia palm oil output may decline around 15-30 pct in December due to floods against usual rate of 10 pct for this season, he added.
The end-December Malaysia palm oil stock is expected to fall to to 2 million tonnes from 2.27 million tonnes in November, said Douglas.
He said the southeast Asian couontry expects production in 2015 to be 20 million tonnes for palm oil and 700,000 tonnes for rubber
Heavy downpours over the past weeks have forced close to a quarter of a million people to evacuate from their homes and claimed a total of 21 lives as of Tuesday, local authorities report.
