KUALA LUMPUR, Malasia -- With billions of dollars at stake, growers of edible oils in the tropics are fighting back at efforts by American soybean growers to steer Western consumers away from palm oil for health reasons.
The privately-funded American Soybean Association maintains that the consumption of palm oil, made from the palm nut, and other tropical oils contributes to coronary heart disease.
Malaysia, the world's biggest producer of palm oil, is incensed.
The ASA is playing hard ball. It has issued a leaflet showing a man clad in a white suit and matching broad-brimmed hat, cigar and coconut cocktail in hand and says he is 'stealing markets from U.S. soybean farmers' and is the purveyor of a possible health hazard.
The oils, stiff competitors to soybean in the world-wide edible oils market, are referred to simply as 'tropical fats' in the association's slick public relations campaign. A picture of a coconut bomb with its fuse burning bears the warning: 'What you don't know about 'tropical fats' can kill you.'
The soybean lobbyists are pressing the U.S. Congress to pass a labeling law to force users of tropical oils to inform consumersthat their products contain saturated fats, which scientists say spur cholestrol buildup in the arteries, increasing the chance of a heart attack.
The American Heart Association has joined the battle, testifying before Congress as recently as Sept. 10 that consumers should be aware that products containing palm or coconut oils 'are not reducing the amount of saturated fat in their diet, but actually increasing it.'
Malaysian palm oil experts and government officials say the soybean growers are basing their claims on dubious and outdated research in order to win a competitive edge over the growing threat from palm oil in the world market.
The ASA's campaign to label palm oil a 'saturated fat' is 'highly discriminatory and nothing more than very selective protectionism in disguise' says Lim Keng Yaik, Malaysia's minister of primary industries.
Malaysia exports only 300,000 metric tons of palm oil annually to the United States -- accounting for less than 3 percent of the domestic American market for edible oils. Palm oil is used in some shortenings and a variety of foods.
Industry analysts say the potential for increased exports exists but if palm oil is effectively branded a health hazard, markets in the United States and elsewhere may evaporate.
The issue, at this point, has not caused a rift between the U.S. and Malaysian governments, rather remaining a war of words between the 400,000-strong, influential soybean growers's group and palm oil producers in Asia and Africa.
Malaysia, along with other producers in Indonesia, Thailand and Nigeria, can ill afford to lose the billions of dollars in palm oil export earnings that are at stake.
In 1986, Malaysia produced 4.5 million tons of palm oil, representing 60 percent of the world's crop, and is targeted to increase output to almost 9 million tons by the year 2000.
Palm oil exports raked in $1.3 billion last year, despite low global prices, to make it one of the country' top earners.
The livelihoods of 2 million people -- about 13 percent of the population -- depend on the palm oil sector.
Malaysia has picked up the gauntlet to protect its product in a battle Lim describes as a 'fight between David and Goliath' for control of the world's edible oils market.
Earlier this year, Malaysia hired Hill and Knowlton Inc., a Washington-based public relations and lobbying group, to counter the ASA campaign and the allegations that palm oil poses a potential health hazard to consumers.
Thirteen Malaysian, British, American and Dutch experts plan a swing through the United States in October to educate refiners, food manufacturers, consumers and the media on palm oil's beneficial effects.
The first of the day-long symposiums will be held Oct. 1 in San Francisco, followed by sessions Oct. 5 in Minneapolis, Oct. 8 in Chicago, Oct. 16 in Dallas, Oct. 26 in Washington and Oct. 30 in New York. ---
The health issue poses a serious problem for palm oil producers. As the ASA points out, palm oil contains roughly 51 percent saturated fat. Soybean oil, on the other hand, contains only 15 percent saturated fat.
Dori Mitchell, a clinical dietician at Georgetown University in Washington and a member of an American Heart Association nutrition committee, told a U.S. House agriculture subcommittee that it is well established that dietary saturated fats raise cholesterol in the blood and thus contribute to coronary disease.
Palm oil experts do not deny its saturated fat content but say that scientific research shows that, unlike other oils, it does not behave as a saturated fat and has characteristics that actually inhibit the buildup of cholestrol.
But they face a tough job of getting that message across to a public that for years has been told that saturated fats are a health risk.
is now aggressively trying to counter palm oil's 'unhealthy' image through intensified research.
'We're fighting this vicious smear campaign on a scientific basis, highlighting palm oil's beneficial nutritional qualities,' said Augustine Ong, PORIM's director general, 'We have not gone so low as to criticize soybean oil.
'Malaysia is only asking for fair competition based on scientific fact and that means the latest information, not 30-year-old research.'
Nutrition Reviews, a respected U.S. publication based at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, reported in its July issue that animal and human experiments indicate that despite its high saturated fatty acid content, palm oil 'does not behave as a saturated oil.'
Moreover, the report said rat studies suggest palm oil may be effective in countering thrombosis, the formation of blood clots that cause most heart attacks. The American Heart Association, however, questions the research methods used in those studies.
Chong Yoon Hin, a nutritition expert and senior research fellow at PORIM, said palm oil's 'exceptional and unexpected behavior' is probably the result of its minor components including vitamin E.
Chong says palm oil also contains beta-carotene, which is believed to have an anti-cancer effect.
At a world palm oil conference held in Kuala Lumpur in June, Gerard Hornstra, a biochemist from Holland's Limburg University, said further studies on palm oil's unusual nutritional qualities should be done.
'The importance of palm oil as a nutritional oil is in sharp contrast to the very limited knowledge as to its effects on various aspects of the cardiovascular risk profile. Therefore, further studies, especially designed to investigate the effect of dietary palm oil and palm oil-based nutritional products in man, are badly needed,' he said.
Experts agree it will take years to build up a strong and persuasive scientific-based counter to the mountains of studies proving the nutritional qualities of soybean and other low cholestrol oils.
To bolster its case, nine U.S. scientists have been engaged to conduct research on the nutritional and health benefits of palm oil.
