By Emily Chow
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures fell at the midday break on Monday, as weak export demand and losses in U.S. soyoil weighed.
The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.8 percent at 2,266 ringgit ($564.81) per tonne, its sharpest intraday loss since June 19.
Palm gained in the previous session, snapping four consecutive days of losses. It is down nearly 7 percent so far this month.
Trading volumes stood at 19,531 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.
"The market is lacking demand, this is the primary cause of price declines," said a Kuala Lumpur based trader.
"Exports have been bad since the export tax was reinstated, and Indonesian prices are more competitive than ours," added the trader, referring to Malaysia's tax on crude palm oil exports.
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Malaysia resumed export taxes on crude palm oil in May, after suspending it for four months at the start of the year to increase demand and boost prices. It announced a 5 percent rate for the month of July.
Exports of palm oil and related products from the world's second largest producer declined 12.5 percent from June 1-25, reported inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia on Monday, versus the corresponding period in May.
Palm's decline could also be due to weakness in U.S. soyoil on the Chicago Board Of Trade, another trader said. The Chicago July soybean oil contract was last down 0.2 percent on Monday.
In other related oils, the September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.3 percent, while the Dalian September palm oil contract was up 0.3 percent.
Palm oil prices track the performance of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)
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