Archived News

10/08/2008 (Ventura Country Star) - Have you heard of "nutrition fatigue"? It is a term for the problem faced by nutrition advocates after years of telling people so many things are dangerous to human health.

09/08/2008 (Daily News Online) - ALL land practitioners have got to address the issue of land for bio-fuels. In Tanzania concern has already been raised both in Parliament and by a number of commentators that we are giving away too much land, valuable land, to foreign investors for growing plants for bio-fuels. A good starting point to address this issue is to understand what bio-fuels are and whether bio-fuel growing is good, bad or ugly for a poor country like Tanzania. There is a lot of literature now on bio-fuels with arguments on both sides of the fence; some arguing for, and some arguing against bio-fuels. Addressing the question of bio-fuels has taken on an urgent need in view of the escalating (fossil) oil prices and in view of the need to protect the environment. Once heralded as the alternative fuel source of the future, bio-fuels have come under scrutiny recently with a number of reports suggesting they cause more harm to the environment than originally thought, and that they cause fundamental socio-economic problems affecting access to land for the world poor.

09/08/2008 (The Economic Times) - NEW DELHI: India and the ASEAN have finally concluded talks on a free trade agreement (FTA), sorting out long-standing differences over proposed tariff cuts in sensitive farm products such as palm oil.

10/08/2008 (The Hindu Business Line), Mumbai - The widespread sell off in the commodity markets in recent days has not spared the vegetable oil market. Firming US dollar, falling crude prices, burgeoning stocks and generally improved weather conditions in major origins have all combined to drive speculative funds holding long positions to liquidate.

08/08/2008 (The Nation News) - The International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has presented to the Liberian Government the findings of a study that reviewed the country’s oil palm sector.

07/08/2008 (Commodity Online), New Delhi - News of an increased domestic oilseed output and crashing global prices may force the centre to impose import tax on crude vegetable oils, which was lifted following a huge rise in prices in the domestic market.

07/08/2008 (Reuters, India), New Delhi - Vegetable oil traders are reneging on contracts to import palm oil as global prices slump and the domestic oilseed crop recovers, a senior trade official said on Thursday

07/08/2008 (The Economic Times), New Delhi - The India-Asean free trade agreement (FTA) — which would result in duty-free trade with Asean countries such as Malaysia and Singapore in most agriculture and industrial products over the next 10 years — is finally ready for take-off. The trade negotiations committee (TNC) comprising top officials from India and the ten-member bloc is meeting, probably for the last time, on Thursday in Brunei to give a final push to the FTA and seal the deal.

05/08/2008 (Reuters, UK), Jakarta - Malaysia and Indonesia will cooperate in a biofuel development program, and may use the same biofuel specifications and amount of blending, Malaysia's commodities minister said on Tuesday.

05/08/2008 (Reuters), Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia plans to use 500,000 tonnes of crude palm oil from its swelling inventories in the next two to three months to produce biodiesel to boost faltering prices of the vegetable oil, Commodities Minister Peter Chin said on Tuesday.

04/08/2008 (Bernama), SUKABUMI (West Java) - Malaysia and Indonesia Monday agreed to use the surplus from their palm oil stockpiles to produce biodiesel as part of the mechanism to boost the palm oil price.

04/08/2008 (Guardian.co.uk) - New Britain Palm Oil is opening a refinery in the UK which it claims will allow shoppers to know exactly where the palm oil in their shopping basket comes from.