Archived News

7/2/07 (Business Standard India) - Increase in imports of agricultural products like edible oil and foodgrain has led to a growth in imports of sensitive items by 11.7 per cent in April-December 2006 at Rs 12,959 crore, compared with Rs 14,472 crore in the same period of 2005.

6/2/07 (FT.com) - Biodiesel could be "this year's ethanol" in the view of Leigh Goering, portfolio manager for the natural resources fund at Chilton Investment Company.

7/2/07 (Asia Times) JAKARTA - New European concerns about the adverse environmental impact associated with Southeast Asian-produced biofuels threatens to scupper the rapidly growing multibillion-dollar industry, just as big new production facilities and cultivation areas come onstream.

6/2/07 NAIROBI (AFP) - Illegal logging by international companies could lead to a 98 percent loss of South East Asia's tropical rainforests by 2022, threatening the habitat of tens of thousands of endangered orangutans, the United Nations warned.

8/2/07 (Economic Times) - MUMBAI: Rebutting a media report that imposition of excise duty on refined edible oils will help the exchequer garner Rs 700 crore annually, a trade body has said any gains accruing to the government would be offset by special additional duty (SAD) adjusted against excise.

31/1/07 (TEMPO Interactive) Jakarta: The government has asked that the plan to increase levies or export restrictions on crude palm oil (CPO) be observed comprehensively.

30/1/07 (TEMPO Interactive) Jakarta: A number of oil palm producers have acknowledged being concerned over the plan for limiting crude palm oil (CPO) exports.

8/2/07 (Daily Express) - Lahad Datu: The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) managed to save RM2.5 million annually by fully utilising discarded Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) in its biomass power generator plant in Sahabat, here.

06/2/07 (The Jakarta Post, Jakarta) - International criticism of Indonesia's massive biofuel development program will not affect the project, which is expected to turn the country into one of the biggest biofuel producers in the world, says an official.

2/2/07 Shanghai. (INTERFAX-CHINA) - China has developed technology to transform palm oil to biodiesel, according to state news agency Xinhua.

HAMBURG, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Germany's biodiesel industry, Europe's biggest, is seeing demand fall largely due to new taxes at the same time the European Union is encouraging biofuel use.

2/2/07 (Busienss Times) - MALAYSIA'S plantations industry, which relies on imported chemicals, manure and agriculture waste as fertilisers, can now opt for a new revolutionary product developed locally.