My mistake, I read the article early this morning in the...

My mistake, I read the article early this morning in the Australian.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23029800-643,00.html

"THE Malaysian Government has been forced to release emergency stocks of palm oil to stop a wave of panic buying after cooking oil prices soared.

The crisis has prompted palm oil rationing in a country that is one of the world's largest producers of the commodity, and the rush to buy it coincides with growing fears of cooking oil shortages before the banquets and general rise in the consumption of fried food over the Chinese new year.

Inventories are already low. The ethnic diversity of Malaysia means that Christmas, the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr and the Hindu celebration of Diwali are all marked with equal vigour, with festivities focusing largely on eating.

Refineries and palm oil producers in Malaysia have been ordered to step up monthly output of subsidised oil to 70,000 tonnes in an increase of nearly 30 per cent.

The run began on Monday as traders in Kuala Lumpur pushed the price of palm oil to a record 3166 ringgit ($1098) a tonne. Although a modest bout of profit-taking led to a fall yesterday, few analysts believe that the commodity is nearing its peak. Palm oil has been the beneficiary of a combination of seismic shifts in global commodity markets. Because of its increasing appeal as a cheap source of ethanol for biofuel, the price of what was once purely a foodstuff now echoes the global price of crude oil.

More extreme weather, including flooding in several of Malaysia's key regions for growing the crop, has also taken a toll on price stability."