Malaysia banks on China’s love of mala hotpot to spice up palm oil exports

Malaysia hopes to encourage China’s hotpot restaurants to use palm oil as a base for the broth, as part of efforts to diversify markets

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A worker harvests palm oil fruits at a plantation in Johor, Malaysia, last year. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 2:00pm, 19 Jun 2024Updated: 2:17pm, 19 Jun 2024

Malaysia’s palm oil industry is hoping to get a fresh kick from China’s insatiable appetite for mala hotpot as the world’s second-largest producer of the vegetable oil looks to diversify markets for a sector that faces possible sanctions under deforestation rules imposed by the European Union.

On Wednesday, during Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s first official visit to Malaysia to coincide with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, the two countries renewed a five-year economic and trade pact and expanded cooperation across sectors such as green technology and cross-border crime.

China is the second-largest importer of Malaysian palm oil, buying last year nearly 3.1 million tonnes of the controversial commodity that environmental groups have said is responsible for mass deforestation and the destruction of the habitat of critically endangered animals such as the orangutan.

But Malaysia thinks there is plenty more room to grow demand in China, which counted nearly 400,000 restaurants across the country that specialise in Sichuan hotpot in 2021, according to the official data.

Mala seasoning in a hotpot broth. Advocates say palm oil is perfectly suited for the “intense cooking process” of mala hotpot. Photo: Shutterstock

The government has cooked up a plan to convince the hundreds of thousands of hotpot operators in China to consider palm oil as an alternative base for the tongue-numbing broth, which is often made from beef tallow and can be so spicy that some versions purportedly cause hallucinations.