The year 2010 has been a very happy one for the palm oil industry. The GAPKI conference is well timed and for me personally some of my most successful forecasts happen to be made at GAPKI conferences. At this conference in December 2009,1 forecast that growth of crude palm oil (CPO) production in Indonesia would be curtailed in 2010 by the developing El Nino, occurring at the same time as the low turn of the biological cycle, despite a rise in mature acreage. This combination of events would also push Malaysian production into negative territory. As a result I gave a bullish prognosis for 2010. At the Palm and Lauric Oils Conference & Exhibition (POC) held in Kuala Lumpur in March 2010,1 forecast 2010 Malaysian production at just 17.2 million metric tons (MMT) and Indonesian production to grow by only 1.5 MMT. I also forecast CPO prices to exceed 3,000 ringgits ($1,000) per metric ton in the second half of the year.
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