Archived News

19 Ocyober, 2002 (Business Times) - CONSTRUCTION of the first three of 26biomass-based power plants in Malaysia will start soon.

10/09/2002 (Financial Times) - KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 8. AFRICA could be nextbig market for Malaysian palm oil because of low per capita consumption inthat continent and large population.This was revealed by the Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Palm OilPromotion Council, Mr Haron Siraj, during his presentation at OFIC 2002 ondynamics of global oils and fats trade. "Over 228 million people in thewhole of Africa consume less than five kg per capita and this provides amajor market opportunity," he noted.Malaysia, he claimed, was facing technical barriers to trade, objectionson environmental grounds and market access restrictions. "We will take upthe market access issue with China and India for a level playing field,"Mr Siraj said.Malaysians have been unhappy with India because of large difference incustoms duty between soyabean oil (45 per cent) and crude palm oil (65 percent).They have been lobbying for parity of duty between palm and soya oils.Referring to the impact of madcow disease in Europe, the MPOPC chief saidmany consumers have converted from tallow to vegetable oil because of theBSE crisis and demand for palm stearine - a substitute to tallow - forindustrial application was rising. Other challenges palm oil facedincluded logistics (freight space and cost); regulatory impact of shipping(previous cargo restriction); labelling; food safety clearance by FDA andso on, he said.

10/10/2002 (Financial Times) - Ukrainian oil mills reduced year-on-yearproduction in the first eight months of 2002, the Agriculture Ministry'sfood department reported.Production of sunflower oil was down 14% to 351,393 tonnes.Ukrainian companies produced 8,199 tonnes of sunflower oil in August, down6.15% year-on-year and 75.5% from July 2002.Experts attribute the drop to a 35% decline in the sunflower harvest to2.245 million tonnes in 2001.Oil mills are already processing sunflower seeds from the new harvest. Themills have the capacity to process 3.5 million tonnes of sunflower seed ayear.The Ukrainian sunflower oil market is estimated at 450,000 tonnes a year.Margarine production dropped 2.6% in the first eight months to 107,554tonnes.Ukraine produced 8,261 tonnes of margarine in August, up 34% year-on-year, but down 30.3% from July 2002.Margarine production totaled 185,600 tonnes in 2001, up 22.2% from 2000.The capacity of the margarine market in Ukraine is estimated at 130,000tonnes a year.Ukraine produced 29,800 tonnes of mayonnaise in the first eight months,down 4.7%. Mayonnaise output in August amounted to 3,158 tonnes, up 9.6%year-on-year. Ukraine produced 47,461 tonnes of mayonnaise in 2001, up14.1% from 2000. The country's biggest oils and fats producers are part ofthe Ukroliyarprom association.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- Primary Industries Minister Datuk SeriDr Lim Keng Yaik, will be leading a Malaysian Palm Oil Economic andTechnical Mission to Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emiratesfrom Oct 13-29, 2002.This mission represents part of the continuous efforts of the governmenttopromote greater use of palm oil and to expand the market for Malaysianpalm oil and its products, the ministry said in a statement here Saturday.The mission becomes more significant in view of the rising trend of palmoil production and stiff competition from other oils and fats, it said.Morocco has the potential to become a significant market for Malaysianpalm oil as it relies heavily on imports to meet its domestic oil and fatsrequirement.With the reduction in import duties on vegetable oils instituted by theMoroccan Government in November 2000, palm oil now looks more accessibleinto the country.This is evident from the fact that imports of palm oil into Moroccoincreased from 8,000 tonnes in 2000 to almost 15,000 tonnes in 2001.As for Egypt, it is currently the biggest importer of Malaysian palm oilin Africa and West Asia, requiring some 1.2 million tonnes of oils andfats annually, while local production accounts for only 15 percent of therequirement.In 2001, Egypt imported 453,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia, whichconstituted about 73 percent of its total palm oil import that year.Recognising the importance of the Egyptian market, the ministry said thatthe Malaysian government has offered Egypt a credit facility of US$25million under the Palm Oil Credit and Payment Arrangement (POCPA) scheme.As for Jordan and UAE, they represent Malaysia's traditional markets inWest Asia.Jordan has been importing palm oil of between 130,000 to 150,000 tonnes ayear, whereares UAE imports some 180,000 tonnes a year.The misison will hold discussions with the relevant Ministries, agencies,traders, manufacturers and distributors with a view to further enhancingbilateral trade, particularly in palm oil between Malaysia and the fourcountries.-- BERNAMA

Kuala Lumpur, October 8 : Malaysia will urge India to reduce tariff oncrude palm oil (CPO) and refined oil import, minister of primaryindustries Lim Keng Yaik said on Tuesday.Mr Yaik, who will visit India in February, told reporters that the issueshe would discuss with the Indian government, include reduction in importduty on palm oil, parity in vegetable oil duty structure and reduction indifferential duty.The use of diversified palm oil-based products and possibility of Malaysiasupplying the knowledge and technology for oleochemical plants would alsobe discussed, he said.Saying that the tariff on palm oil was very high, he said India applies ahigh differential duty on crude oil and refined oil too.“We would also like to create awareness and promote non-conventionaloptions and diversified usage of oil palm such as production ofoleochemicals, biomass, biofuel and the use of oleochemicals as asubstitute to petrochemicals in various products, he said.Even in edible oil industry palm oil can be used in different variationslike, specialty fat and cooking fat. “We are also working to get the rightformula to use oil palm to prepare milk substitute as non-dairy milk,” MrYaik said.Saying that use of oleaochemical as a substitute of petrochemicals is notonly more effective but also environment friendly, Mr Yaik said.— PTI

IPOH, Oct 13: Malaysian pulp and paper mills will soon be able to producehigh quality papers using the abundant supply of locally produced emptyfruit bunches (EFB) from the palm oil sector.Malaysian pulp and paper mills will soon be able to produce high qualitypapers using the abundant supply of locally produced empty fruit bunches(EFB) from the palm oil sector.Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said during hisvisit to the Fujian province in China last month, he brought alongshredded fibre from the EFB to experiment whether it the EFB could beturned into a viable alternative to wood-based raw material."The results were encouraging. Although the experiment produced lowquality papers, it gave us a positive indication that with improvedtechnology and improvisation our local pulp and paper mills will be ableto produce high quality papers using the EFB," he told the New StraitsTimes when attending the 10th anniversary celebration of Kampung JeringBeautification Committee near Ayer Tawar last night.Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, given the task to experiment theEFB, has rented a pulp and paper mill in China's Fujian province for aperiod of seven days one week to test the shredded fibre.Dr Lim said the experiment showed that mills in the capacity range ofabout 25,000 tonnes of pulp per year could be established locally toproduce papers.He said the next step in expanding the use of EFB as a viable source ofpaper manufacturing was to send locally shredded fibre to mills in Chinato be toll-manufactured into papers and then sent back to Malaysia."Although the local pulp and paper industry is almost 40 years, growth hadbeen slow," he said, adding that the 19 paper manufacturing companies inthe country needed to implement new technologies to be able to convert theEFB as raw material for manufacturing of papers.He said the FRIM had been given the task to acquire the technology and themethodology involved in the production of the papers using the EFB."Once we have the know-how, we will impart it to local pulp and papermanufacturers," Dr Lim said, adding that the local pulp and paper industryshould fully capitalise on the vast availability of fibre materials,especially from EFB.There are about 350 oil palm mills in Malaysia, producing 16.5 milliontonnes (wet weight) of EFB per year which is equivalent to about sixmillion tonnes of dry EFB based on a moisture content of 60 per cent.Dr Lim told delegates during a seminar on Pulp and Paper Seminar held inPutrajaya last month that the country had the potential to produce 1.7million tonnes of paper per year and at the rate of US$750 per tonne thevalue of the paper produced would be about US$1.27 billion.Other non-wood raw materials used in the paper manufacturing are ricestraws, corn stalks, wheat straws and bamboos.These sources have been successfully turned into pulp and paper in Chinaand India.

09/30/2002 (Financial Times)The recent setback in kharif oil seeds production will lead to a 6-lakhtonne shortage of edible oils in India. Assuming that the kharif 2002edible oils output will last till Mar 2003, it is estimated that betweenNov 2002 and Mar 2003 about 20.75 lakh tonnes of edible oil need to beimported against 13 lakh tonnes imported during Nov 2001-Mar 2002. Theimport requirement will be 16.65 lakh tonnes of palm oil and 4.10 lakhtonnes of soft oils.

10/04/2002 (Financial Times) - Major consumers of palm oil such as Indiaand Pakistan may reduce their imports of edible oils in the next fewmonths, as they harvest their own crops. India may reduce its imports ofedible oils by about 200,000 tonnes, as harvesting of soyabeans,groundnuts and rapeseed begins in Oct 2002. Analysts opine that India mayimport about 300,000 tonnes of edible oil for Oct 2002.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 7. (Asia Intelligence Wire) - THE Oils and FatsInternational Congress 2002 (OFIC 2002) to be held here this week isgetting ready for a great start with several hundred delegates from acrossthe world participating.Over the next three days, diverse issues covering oils and fats in humannutrition; agricultural biotechnology and novel oil crops; and globalbusiness in oils and fats will be discussed.In the module on global issues, presentations will cover dynamics of theglobal oils and fats trade, implications of post-Doha WTO on palm oilbusiness; latest developments in Codex Alimentarius; India's policy onliberalisation versus protectionism in edible oils; and several otherissues will come up for discussion.The meet will be inaugurated by Dr Lim Keng Yaik, Malaysia's Minister forPrimary Industries. The World congress on oleochemicals will also be apart of OFIC 2002.Organised by the Malaysian Oil Scientists' and Technologists' Associationtogether with various bodies for palm oil promotion, the meet will alsosee the launch of an international oils and fats technology exposition.Over 600 delegates including many fromIndia are expected to participate, the organisers said.

10/04/2002 (Financial Times) - The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) hasstarted to look for investors that would fund the commercialization of itscoconut diesel fuel, PCA regional director Lornito Orillaneda said.He said a committee has been created to handle investor participation inthe project."We will give it to a private company," Mr. Orillaneda said, adding thePCA laboratory has a daily output of only three drums, or 600 liters aday, of coconut diesel used in its vehicles.Earlier, the Department of Agriculture, where PCA is an attached agency,asked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to issue an executive order thatwill encourage investors to look at the viability of commercializing cocodiesel, which earns around 12% of the gross income in royalty fees.A report earlier said the three major participants in the petroleumindustry - Petron Corp., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex(Phils.), Inc. - have expressed willingness to use coco diesel in dilutingsulfur content in their commercial diesel products.PCA has gone into a five-year research to perfect its coco diesel,scientifically referred to as the coconut methyl ester (CME), a chemicalcompound proven to have reduced smoke emission in vehicles.The World Association of Engine Manufacturers has endorsed a 5% CME ondiesel fuel.Francisco Fajardo, PCA bio-fuel program officer, said that a 1% CME blendon diesel fuel is enough to reduce to about 2.3% sulfur content in smokeemitted.Some groups have been batting for the lowering of sulfur content of dieselfuel because of its danger as this was specified in the Clean Air Act. ByJan. 1, 2003, the law specifies that sulfur content in diesel fuel must belowered to 1.2%.

06 October 2002 (Business Times) - IRAN, a traditional soyabean oilbuyer, seeks some 40,000 tonnes of Malaysian palm oil for delivery beforethe end of this year.

7/10/02 (New Straits Times) - A local company has come up with theworld's first enzymatic treatment that permits palm kernel expeller to befed to chicken and fish.