Archived News

JAKARTA, Feb 18 Asia Pulse - Indonesia will formally ask India about thepurpose of its recent decision to increase the import duty on palm oilimports.

JAKARTA, Feb 21 Asia Pulse - Malaysia's Federal Land DevelopmentAuthority (Felda) wants to build a new oil palm plantation in EastKalimantan .

BANGKOK, Feb 21 (TNA) - The Department of Agriculture has announced plansto plant one million oil palm trees in Thailand's northeastern Nong Khaiprovince as part of a pilot bio-diesel project.

February 21, 2005 - Most of the damaged land in the northern tip ofIndonesia's tsunami-devastated Sumatra island will be cultivated with palmoil plantations, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 (Bernama) -- Amidst growing competition whichthreatens Malaysia's position as the world's No. 1 exporter of palm oil,Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin says thefuture of the country's commodities trade depends on developing downstreamindustries with the importing countries.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Agriculture andAgro-Based Industries has identified agriculture food production as anengine of economic growth on par with the contribution from the oil palmand rubber sector.

17/2/05 Oilmandi - BOOMING trade in soyabean and derivatives in recentyears has left wheat and coarse grains behind.

15/02/05 Klang - GOLDEN Hope Plantations Bhd will focus on Indonesia,particularly Kalimantan Barat, in expanding its oil palm acreage thisyear.

17/2/05 India - IN RAISING THE Customs duty on the palm group of oils by15 percentage points and reducing their tariff values to reflectinternational market conditions, the Government has in one masterstroketried to balance the interests of oilseed growers and consumers. Whetherthe Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, could have waited to make thechanges a part of the around-the-corner Budget may be debatable; but therationale of his action cannot be faulted. Indeed, it is positive for allstakeholders, including growers, consumers and processing industry. Whilethe changes are revenue positive, they are nearly neutral as far asconsumer prices are concerned. The psychological effect of the duty hikeis sure to support rapeseed/mustard prices that have been ruling wellbelow the minimum support price of Rs 1,700 a quintal. The processingindustry can have nothing to complain about because it will recover theadditional duty burden from consumers. So far so good.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Three important areas would have to besorted out before the listing of Felda Holding Sdn Bhd can take place onBursa Malaysia, said Group Chairman of Kumpulan Felda, Tan Sri Dr MohdYusof Noor, Wednesday.

16//2005 Business Times (Malaysia) - GOLDEN Hope Plantations Bhd will seekapproval from minority shareholders of Negara Properties (M) Bhd to mergethe latter with Island & Peninsular Bhd (I&P). Negara Properties is 62.6per cent-owned by Golden Hope. Golden Hope group chief executive DatukSabri Ahmad said interest of the minority is best served by merging theproperty businesses of Negara Properties with I&P's.

JAKARTA, Feb 17 Asia Pulse - Indonesia's exports of crude palm oil (CPO)to India are expected to fall short of expectations after the latterraised import duties on the commodity to 80 per cent, up from 65 per centearlier.