Archived News

16/08/05 KARACHI (Daily Times) - Palm oil import is expected to increaseby 30 percent to 40 percent amid high domestic demand and a bearish worldoil price outlook, importers and dealers said on Tuesday.

12/08/05 (The Hindu) - HEALTH and nutrition issues relating to vegetableoils in general and palm oil in particular have assumed importance inrecent years. In many of the developed economies where obesity is aserious health issue, consumption of fats has engaged the attention ofnutritionists, consumers and manufacturers.

19/08/2005 NEW DELHI, (Reuters) - Soy oil suppliers are making an all outeffort to snatch a part of palm oil's market share in Asia but India'sproximity to palm oil suppliers and China's preference for soybeans willstand in the way.Traders and analysts said for India, the world's largest edible oilsimporter, a shorter distance to palm oil suppliers of Malaysia andIndonesia, compared with soft oil exporters in South America and theUnited States, in addition to lower prices, will more than offset arelatively lower import duty on soft oils.And in China, the preference to increasingly import soybeans to feed itshuge crushing capacity is helping the world's second- largest importer ofvegetable oils to generate enough soy oil of its own, leaving little scopefor importing soft oils.In India, palm oil has a 70-75 per cent share out of nearly five milliontonnes of annual edible oil imports, leaving the remaining 25-30 per centto soft oil.The ratio of soy oil in the import basket in India has been growingbecause of lower duties on it, leaving Asian palm oil producers a worriedlot. But Indian traders say palm oil producers' fears of soy oil capturingthe market were unfounded."Palm oil will continue to be the king, irrespective of the prices orcustoms duties," said B.V. Mehta, executive director of the SolventExtractors' Association of India.Traders say palm oil is 10-15 per cent cheaper than soy oil, well acceptedby the Indian consumer as a cooking medium and is also preferred byindustrial users. The landed cost of crude palm olein is around $430 atonne at Indian ports.In China, soy oil imports in the first seven months of 2005 fell by 41.5per cent to 940,000 tonnes over the same year-ago period, while palm oilimports during the same period rose 30 per cent to 1.6 million tonnes.A boom in soy crushing in China has been pushing down prices ofdomestically produced soy oil, making imports unattractive.And importers in China, like in India, also turn to buy palm oil in smallcargoes to meet immediate needs."This year was pretty good for palm oil because international soybeanprices were pretty expensive," said a market analyst with a Chinesecrusher. "But soy reserves are relatively high and are pressuring soy oilprices, especially because crushers have to keep their plants going forcash flow.""The ratio between the two oils can undergo a change in India depending onfreight rates and other factors like shipping time but soy can neverovertake palm oil," said Mehta.

20/08/ 2005 PEKAN BARU (The Star) - A big Malaysian-owned oil palmplantation in Riau, Sumatra implicated by Indonesia for open burning hascome out to strongly deny the allegations.

18/08/05 PUTRAJAYA, (NSPT) - Some 44,000 oil palm harvesters and millworkers in the peninsula will now enjoy higher monthly guaranteed minimumearnings of RM350, up from RM325 per employee, under their new collectiveagreement (CA).Following mediation by an industrial court chairman, the new CA alsoguarantees them a seven per cent increase in wages and incentives, as wellas 18 months’ back wages from Jan 1, 2004 to June 30 this year.

12/08/05 (Bernama) - A TOTAL of 500,000 tonnes of palm oil will be neededeach year to respond to the Government’s call to produce and use palmoil-based biofuel, Malaysia Palm Oil Association (MPOA) said.

15/08/05 Sandakan (Daily Express News) - Sabah, Malaysia's biggest palmoil producer, aims to produce six million tonnes of palm oil in 2010, saidState Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail.

15/08/2005 (Sunday Business Post - Authorities in central Malaysia plan totake legal action against oil palm plantation owners who burnedagricultural waste, defying a ban that was installed to ease the chokingsmog caused by fires in Indonesia.

15/08/2005JAKARTA (Associated Press) - Indonesia's proposal to build theworld's largest palm oil plantation along its border with Malaysia wouldhave a devastating impact on forests, wildlife and the local population,an environmental group warned Monday.

13/08/05 KULIM, Indonesia - Palm oil farmers have used fire to clear theirland of tall grass, shrubs and trees for years, without any idea that thenoxious fumes caused problems in neighboring Malaysia or anywhere else.

12/08/05 JAKARTA, (Asia Pulse) - The Oil Palm Research Center (PPKS) inMedan will start commercial production of biodiesel oil with a dailyoutput of 20 tons.

16/08/05 KUALA LUMPUR, (Bernama) -- Malaysia is gearing towardsself-sufficiency in paper products with the anticipation of more pulp andpaper mills coming on stream in the future.