KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's crude palm oil will enjoy bullish prices this year with the golden crop breaching pass the RM3,000 per tonne level if production and stocks deplete. The Executive Director and Publisher of Hamburg-based "Oil World" magazine Thomas Mielke said: "We however have to be cautious. The worry we have at the moment is that we are living with very tight stocks. "If anything goes wrong on the production side, the situation can turn critical and prices will surpass RM3,000 per tonne," he told participants of the Palm and Lauric Oil Conferene which ended on Wednesday. Mielke estimated Malaysia's crude palm oil output this year at 17.8 million tonnes. "Yields in Malaysia have fallen sharply behind target and we have seen very little growth. "There's almost very little upward potential," he said, adding that world exports of soyoil was also under pressure due to increasing usage of the oil for biodiesel. Mielke also said countries around the world were becoming increasingly dependent on Malaysian palm oil for their supply of edible vegetable oil. Malaysia's export of palm oil meets 57 per cent of the world's requirement. As for refined palm olein prices, he said it was already nearing US$850 a tonne and this may temporarily place palm oil at a slight premium to soyoil. "US$850 is a high price and it reflects the fundamentals. "If palm oil prices rally, we may see a slight premium, he said, adding that palm oil should not be traded at a discount of US$120 per tonne, as is the case today.

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