Archived News

01/03/2003 (NSTP) - CHINA yesterday announced the 2003 import quota for atotal of 26.3 million tonnes of grains and other agricultural productsincluding wheat, rice and palm oil.The Government said China will import a total of 2.5 million tonnes ofpalm oil in 2003.China, along with India, Pakistan and the European Union, is one of thebiggest buyers of Malaysian palm oil.Malaysia is the world's largest palm oil producer, accounting for a totalof 11.8 million tonnes of palm oil in 2001.For the first 10 months of last year, China bought a total of 1.4 milliontonnes of Malaysian palm oil and it is expected to reach 1.8 milliontonnes for the full year.Yesterday, the January crude palm oil futures price on the Malaysian PalmOil Board closed at RM1,670 a tonne.

1/6/2003 (Country Report Argentina) - Contrasting performances areexpected between cereals and oilseeds in the 2002/03 (June-May) harvest.According to official estimates, the area sown with cereals will contractby 12.5%. Over half of the fall will be explained by the area sown withwheat, a by-product of the critical conditions prevailing at the turn ofthe year, including financial constraints, input shortages anduncertainty. Oilseed production, by contrast, has benefited from thenormalisation of the input market and producers' self-financing fromstocks accumulated in the previous campaign. According to officialestimates, the area sown with sunflower is estimated to increase by 20%,while that sown with soybeans will rise by 6%. The US Department ofAgriculture estimates that Argentina will reach a new record output of32.5m tonnes.

SIBU, Dec 29 (Bernama) -- Sarawak's Natural Resource and EnvironmentalBoard (NREB) will undertake a pilot study on environmental pollutioncaused by used cooking oil.State Environment and Public Health Minister Datuk William Mawan said thata grant of RM500,000 had been allocated for the purpose.

JELI, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- The Felda management will be revamped next yearto enhance the federal agency's role in increasing the incomes of the103,000 settlers in the country.Felda chairman Tan Sri Dr Yusuf Nor said Tuesday that the revamp wouldinvolve 275 land schemes to ensure a higher standard of living for thesettlers, especially when the market price of palm oil, which most of themcultivate, falls.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23: The RM100 million fund pledged by the FederalGovernment to help rubber and oil palm smallholders nationwide to improvetheir income was fully disbursed in 2001 and 2002.Agriculture Minister Datuk Effendi Norwawi handed out RM2.49 million inaid to 350 smallholders in Kuala Langat, Selangor, today, signifying thefull disbursement of the fund."This shows that the Government has fulfilled its promise to thesmallholders," he said.A total of 15,000 smallholders nationwide benefited from the fund,allocated through the ministry, which was announced by Deputy PrimeMinister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in March last year.The smallholders today were part of the 709 rubber and oil palmsmallholders in the State who received RM5 million aid.Effendi urged the smallholders to use their aid wisely, utilising moderntechniques to sustain their crops and their income.The fund was pledged by the Federal Government to aid smallholders aftermarket prices of commodities such as palm oil, rubber and coconut fell totheir lowest level.Several assistance schemes were also introduced by the Government asshort- and long-term measures to increase the smallholders' incomes.The Agriculture Ministry will be seeking an allocation of RM70 millionfrom the Federal Government for the same purpose next year for another10,000 smallholders nationwide.

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NEW DELHI, Dec 18 (Bernama) -- Imports of edible oil by India is expectedto surge to an all-time-high of five million tonnes, going by imports inNovember, the first month of the current oil year and lower Rabi (winterseason) produce of oilseeds."Imports may cross five million tonnes, surpassing the earlier high of4.83 million tonnes in 2000-01, if 21 percent growth in November 2002, thebeginning of the new season is any indication," a leading importer hasbeen quoted in a Mumbai-datelined report in the financial daily theEconomic Times as saying.

CAPITALISING on the largely untapped tech-savvy agriculture industry,MSC-status iTech Worldwide Sdn Bhd is pushing its newly-launched eFlexPlantware, a plantation management business solution, to the local marketand Indonesia, before venturing into other countries like Vietnam.

JOHOR BARU, Dec 21: The latest smear campaign against palm oil productsby non-governmental organisations in the west is being orchestrated bycompetitors of palm oil industries.Revealing this today, Malaysian Palm Oil Board director-general Datuk DrYusof Basiron said the smear campaign, which linked the palm oil industrywith the alleged destruction of orang utan's habitat in Sarawak, was thelatest tactic employed by those such as members of the soya bean oilindustry.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) hasentered into a joint venture with the Beijing Forest Bureau to make atrial usage of a biomass product, Ecomat, in Beijing desert to preventsandstorms.According to Primary Industries Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, theecomat fibre-mat is obtained from empty fruit bunches of the oil palm.

Chemical Business NewsBase 11/30/2002 - The Indian edible oil industry,which produces oil from groundnut, rapeseed, sesame seed, castor seed,sunflower, etc will witness major reforms in the near future. Indiautilizes nearly 28.4 M hectares of land for the production of a number ofcommercial varieties of oil seeds. The Technology Mission on Oil Seeds setup by the Government of India in 1996 adopted certain strategies toincrease oil seeds and oil production, which increased oil seed productionto about 23.7 M tonnes in 1997-1998 to cater to Rup 400 bn oil seedsmarket. Although India accounts only for 9.3% of world's oil production,today it is the largest producer of castor seed and the third largestproducer of rapeseed and cottonseed.The industry expects the high import duty of 40% on oil seeds to bereduced to 5%. With 15,000 crushing units and 400 crude edible oilrefining units, of which 60-70% are small, the installed capacity of oilmills is about 36 M tonnes/y, thereby making India as the fourth largestedible oil economy. In spite of considerable installed capacity, thecapacity utilisation is only 40% (solvent extraction units operating at33% and vegetable oil refineries operating at 40% capacity).Production of edible oil in India has increased to 7 M tonnes in1997-1998. Refined oil accounts for nearly 2 M tonnes out of the total oilconsumption of 9 M tonnes. Edible oil consumption is increasing at about5-6%. India imports 43% of edible oil and during 1997-1998 imports haveincreased to 2.1 M tonnes. With the introduction of differential dutystructure in Dec 1999, duty on refined oil was fixed at 27.5% (25% plus10% surcharge) and that on crude oil was 16.5% (15% plus 10% surcharge).The Rup 11.65 bn refined edible oil trader and manufacturer Adani Wilmarbased in Ahmedabad is the largest edible oil refinery in India with arefining capacity of 800 tonnes/day. The refinery produces 100 tonnes/dayof vanaspati at Mundra Port involving an expenditure of Rup 1 bn. Therefinery, which refines all kinds edible oils imports crude oil forrefining from local (Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) andinternational (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and the US)markets.

(Canberra Times) 12/01/2002 - THE head of Australia's peak motoring grouphas called on the heavy vehicle industry to adopt the use of biodiesel inplace of petrol-based fuels.NRMA motoring and services chief executive Rob Carter said industries suchas trucking and bus transport had a responsibility to help reducegreenhouse gas emissions by switching from standard diesel to biodieselwith no ill effects on machinery.Biodiesel is a plant extract produced from crops like canola. It can besubstituted for standard petrol-based diesel without modifications todiesel engines.'Wider use of biodiesel would reduce Australia's dependence on crude oilas a fuel source and would provide an alternative crop for Australianfarmers,' Mr Carter said.'The whole process from paddock to tailpipe can be greenhouse neutral,which means it does not contribute to global warming.' Mr Carter saidtests had shown no adverse impact from using biodiesel and severalAustralian and overseas transport companies had already proved the fuelcould be an effective substitute.However, Australian Trucking Association deputy chief executive MichaelApps said cost remained the biggest deterrent to using alternative fuelslike biodiesel.'Our industry is willing to use any fuel, but it has to be cost-effectiveand available,' Mr Apps said.He said modern sulphur-reduced clean diesel, due to be introducednationally on January 1, was as environmentally friendly as canola-basedfuel and would be sufficient until the introduction of hydrogen-basedfuel-cell technology.By Scott Hannaford