Archived News

19/08/2010 (Ghana News Agency) - Small-scale oil palm growers and other stakeholders in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions on Thursday met at the Ghana Oil Palm Development Company (GOPDC) at Kwae, to deliberate on sustainable practices in small-scale palm oil production.

19/08/2010 (PRNewswire), Jakarta - Smallholders at Cargill's oil palm plantation, PT. Hindoli in South Sumatra, Indonesia, have received Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification. This is the world's first smallholder scheme to become certified under the RSPO's Smallholder Principles & Criteria and is also another important milestone in Cargill's commitment to producing palm oil in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible manner.

18/08/2010 (Reuters) - Liberia's government has signed a $1.6 billion deal with Golden Veroleum for a 500-acre palm oil plantation in the southeast of the West African nation, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

18/08/2010 (Procurement Leaders News) - The Indonesia-based palm oil production company that has recently come under fire from Greenpeace for allegedly engaging in destruction of protected rainforests on Borneo has claimed that it has been cleared of wrongdoing.

17/08/2010 (Farm Lang Gran.org) - War-ravaged Liberia’s hopes of developing a significant palm oil industry were boosted on Tuesday as one of the world’s biggest producers said it was close to investing in a huge plantation project.

16/08/2010 (Consultancy African.com) - Over the past two decades, improved consumer awareness and information, as well as climate change challenges have led to the increased popularity of palm oil, both as a favoured source of vegetable oil in foods and as a raw material for biofuel. Consequently, palm oil production has increased exponentially, with output having exploded from a few thousand tonnes during the 1980s to over 40,000 tonnes annually in Asia in 2009.(2) This growth trend is expected to continue, with analysts predicting palm oil to become the most internationally traded edible oil by 2012 - particularly considering China and India’s growing affluence and thus increased demand, as well as European states’ investments in palm oil as an ingredient in the subsidised bio-diesel mix. Today, Indonesia is the world’s primary producer of palm oil, supplying 44% of global demand.(3)

12/08/2010 (Bloomberg) - Palm oil output in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer, may drop by as much as 10 percent this year after a longer-than-normal rainy season disrupted harvesting, an industry official said. Prices advanced.

11/08/2010 (Bloomberg) - Palm oil was little changed after its discount to soybean oil narrowed, increasing the appeal of the rival oil for use in food and biofuels.

11/08/2010 (Bloomberg) - Palm oil will drop “significantly” in the fourth quarter as output from new trees in Indonesia, the biggest grower, surpasses estimates and buyers switch to soybean oil, DBS Vickers Securities (Singapore) Pte. said.

11/08/2010 (Borneo Post Online), Kuching - The Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water will help University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) develop state-of-the-art technology to treat oil palm wastes.

10/08/2010 (Mongabay.com) - An environmental audit of palm oil company, PT SMART, found that the company had not cut primary rainforest, yet had destroyed carbon-rich peatlands; however the audit analyzed only 40 percent of PT SMART's holdings and investigated none of its plantations in New Guinea. A subsidiary of agricultural giant Sinar Mas, PT SMART has been accused in a number of reports by Greenpeace of both destroying high conservation value forests and draining peatlands. Greenpeace's reports caused both food giants Unilever and Nestle to drop PT SMART as a supplier of their palm oil, while Cargill stated it would wait to hear the results of the audit. Given the audit's results, both sides are claiming victory.

11/08/2010 (Asia One Health), George Town - Palm oil is set to shed its negative image as more scientific researches on the commodity revealed its potential as a cure for many illnesses.