Archived News

29/09/2011 (Jakarta Post) - Indonesia has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to seal US$1 billion fund assistance from Norway to conserve its rain forests under REDD+ projects. In spite of many delays, the government has completed some preconditions for the fund disbursement. The Jakarta Post’s Adisti Sukma Sawitri talked to Norway’s Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, on the progress over the past year.

29/09/2011 (The Star) - Global economic uncertainties are not expected to impact the local commodities market especially palm oil and rubber, Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainudin said.

29/09/2011 (The Star) - Malaysian palm oil futures bounced on Tuesday as bargain hunters resurfaced after the market neared a one year low the previous day on concerns that developed countries were pushing the world into a recession.

29/09/2011 (Business Times) - Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd rose the most in almost seven months in Kuala Lumpur trading and IOI Corp gained after palm oil prices in Malaysia climbed for the first time in five days.

29/09/2011 (Jakarta Globe) - Stocks rebounded from a 12-month low on Tuesday after the central bank reportedly continued its intervention in the foreign exchange and bond markets to stop the value of Indonesian assets from declining further.

29/09/2011 (Bloomberg) - Chinese soybean and rapeseed oil imports are expected to rise as domestic production can’t keep up with demand, Hamburg-based researcher Oil World said.

29/09/2011 (Click Green) - Work to tackle illegal logging has taken a step forward with the news that Indonesia has become the fifth country to sign a voluntary partnership agreement with the EU to protect its forests which will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

28/09/2011 (ABS CBN News) - The Philippines could expand its palm oil acreage to up to 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) from about 55,000 hectares now, but is weighing the impact on its major coconut oil industry before committing to a long-term plan, a senior official said on Friday.

28/09/2011 (Mongabay.com) - A forestry regulation that would have allowed 7.4 million hectares of oil palm plantations in Indonesian Borneo to be legalized as forestry plantations has been revoked before it ever went into force, reports Bisnis.com, an Indonesian business daily.

28/09/2011 (GreenAnswers) - New York based investment firm, Herakles has its eyes set on a 60,000 square mile area of the Cameroon landscape, with the hope of turning the area into one of the world’s largest production sites of palm-oil. In a market typically dominated by plantations based out of Asia, Herakles hopes to cash in and get a piece of this multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry.

28/09/2011 (Bloomberg) - Malaysian palm oil stocks, led by Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd., fell in Kuala Lumpur trading after a Bloomberg survey showed prices of the edible oil may drop for the first time in three years.

28/09/2011 (Jakarta Globe) - Indonesia’s palm oil producers are forecast to increase production this year as their cultivated areas expand, according to a company executive.