Archived News

23/02/2010 (VOA News) - Like many developing countries, Thailand is looking for ways to ease its reliance on costly imported oil and gas. A new government plan includes nuclear power, bio-fuels and solar energy among potential energy sources for the country.

23/02/2010 (Mongabay.com) - Indonesia will not allow the conversion of natural forest for oil palm plantations, claimed the country's Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan in comments reported by the Jakarta Post.

22/02/2010 (The Independent) - The household goods giant Unilever has distanced itself from a major palm-oil producer after a BBC documentary filmed its staff clearing protected rainforest to make way for plantations producing the widely-used ingredient. In its second blacklisting of a palm-oil producer in three months, Unilever said it would avoid buying supplies originating from the Indonesian company Duta Palma, ensuring they did not end up in best-selling brands such as Dove soap and Flora margarine.

22/02/2010 (The Star Online), Trolak - Plantation conglomerate Felda Holdings Bhd is putting in place strategic Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects encompassing 56 biogas plants, six compost plants, one pellet plant and two independent power producer (IPP) plants nationwide.

21/02/2010 (Financial Chronicle) - The Rs 2,500-crore diversified Emami Group, which is foraying into the edible oil space, will invest around Rs 500 crore in setting up two edible oil refineries in Kris­hnapatnam (Andhra Prade­sh) and Pipavav (Gujarat) as it expects the units to go on stream by 2010-2011, a top official said on Saturday.

21/02/2010 (AFP), Jakarta - Following Brazil's trail, Indonesia is encouraging foreign and local investors to lease huge swathes of fertile countryside and help make the country a major food producer.

20/02/2010 (Bernama), Kuala Lumpur - Dezaia Procare Beauty is eyeing overseas markets for its palm oil-based cosmetics produced through a collaboration with the Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB).

20/02/2010 (New Straits Times), Tawau - Malaysia is not destroying its forests to plant oil palm trees, said Sabah Finance Assistant Minister Datuk Tawfiq Abu Bakar Titingan.

20/02/2010 (The Economic Times), New Delhi - Cooking oil companies that bought expensive mustard seed barely eight weeks ago are now faced with a loss of $100 on each tonne lying uncrushed in their godowns as oilseed prices collapse on the back of a good local harvest and lacklustre oil protein exports. In December and January, companies took delivery of a record 1.73 lakh tonnes seed on commodity exchange Ncdex alone.

20/02/2010 (Pakistan Observer), Islamabad - Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim on Friday informed the Senate that 10,272,963 Metric Tonnes of food items worth $ 8706.4 million were imported during last two years from 2007-2009. The food items include milk, wheat, dry fruit, tea, spices, soybean oil,palm oil, sugar and other food items.

19/02/2010 (Bloomberg) - Sugar cane grown in Brazil and palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia rank as the most sustainable of the current generation of biofuel crops, according to researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

18/02/2010 (Talking Retail) - Nature friendly breakfast cereal brand Jordans has today announced that it intends to use 100% Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in its products by the end of 2010.