Archived News

08/10/2009 (Just Food) - Ferrero, the confectionery giant, has struck a deal to source "significant quantities" of sustainably produced palm oil.

08/10/2009 (Mongabay.com) - Sales of palm oil certified as being produced at less cost to the environment have accelerated after a slow start, reports the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the body that developed the criteria for certification.

08/10/2009 (The Malaysian Insider), Bangkok — Thailand is drafting strict rules on rice and crude palm oil imports to protect its farmers and the quality of its produce next year as a regional free-trade pact expands, senior Thai officials said today.

08/10/2009 (The Guardian) - FOR generations, red palm oil has been revered as both a nutritious food and a valuable medicine. Even now, scientists are beginning to recognise the value of the prized plant in the treatment and prevention of several diseases. BEN UKWUOMA writes on the latest scientific work presented at the International Biomedical Science Congress held in Birminghan United Kingdom by a Nigerian scientist, based in Cape Town South Africa on the nutritional and healing properties inherent in the plant.

09/10/2009 (Energy Portal.eu) - Global production of sustainable palm oil has doubled so far this year, meaning that buyers have access to more palm oil than ever before that was produced without damaging biodiversity, according to new figures from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). "Annual production capacity of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil jumped over the 3 million tonnes mark last month, showing the steepest increase thus far since certification began in August 2008," according to the Roundtable. With current global palm oil production projected at around 46.6 million tones annually, about 6.4 percent of this production is now certified as sustainable by the RSPO - up from 3.2 percent a year ago. "This really shows that some palm oil producers are working hard to make certified sustainable palm oil a world standard," said Cherie Tan. "However, these producers account for less than 20 percent of the producers represented in the RSPO. "All RSPO producers must commit to progress, and to adopt time bound plans towards certification."

08/10/2009 (Food Business Review.com) - Demand in China, India, Middle East increases

06/10/2009 (The Star Online), Petaling Jaya - The earthquake that hit Padang, west Sumatra will not have a big impact on Malaysian companies as Padang is not a “hot spot” for Malaysian palm oil producers.

05/10/2009 (Xinhua Net), Padang - The Indonesian government has to speed up efforts to fix infrastructures at three provinces in Sumatra Island that was damaged by a 7.6 Richter scale-earthquake on Wednesday to revive local economy that has national impact, economists told Xinhua on Monday.

05/10/2009 (Business Times) - Palm oil may be higher next year than previously forecast as stockpiles decline and the dollar weakens, lifting demand, Ben Santoso, a plantation analyst at DBS Vickers Securities (Singapore) Pte Ldt, said in a report.

04/10/2009 (The Star Online), Kota Kinabalu - The Sabah government is determined to ensure the continued existence of its iconic orang utans by enforcing land laws that do not allow clearing of forests along riparian reserves for planting crops such as oil palm.

03/10/2009 (Mongabay.com) - In an unlikely—and perhaps tenuous—alliance, conservationists and the palm oil industry met this week to draw up plans to save Asia's last great ape, the orangutan. As if to underscore the colloquium's importance, delegates on arriving in the Malaysian State of Sabah found the capital covered in a thick and strange fog caused by the burning of rainforests and peat lands in neighboring Kalimantan.

03/10/2009 (Jakarta Post) - Amid the grief over the loss of more than 1,000 lives, the West Sumatra and Jambi earthquakes will mean enormous medium-term material losses with repercussions going beyond the borders of both provinces.