Archived News

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2002 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture’sForeign Agricultural Service has launched a new Web site that provideseasy-to-read crop condition information for most agricultural regions inthe world.Read This Release:http://www.fas.usda.gov/scriptsw/PressRelease/pressrel_dout.asp?PrNum=0243-02

ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The United States signed a deal in Islamabadon Friday to donate 37,800 tonnes of soybean oil, valued at $16 million,to Pakistan's poverty alleviation programme.The agreement was signed by U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Nancy Powell andPakistan's Economic Affairs Secretary Waqar Masood, the U.S. embassy saidin a statement.The United States will pay shipping costs to the southern port city ofKarachi and Pakistan will be allowed to sell the oil and use the money foragricultural development, the embassy said."The donation will help reduce pressure on the government of Pakistan'slimited foreign exchange resources and provide additional resources toimplement Pakistan's long-term poverty reduction and rural developmentprogrammes," the statement said.Last week, the United States signed a deal in Islamabad for theconsolidation and restructuring of $3 billion in debt owed by Pakistan, akey ally in its war against terror.Last November, the United States released $600 million in aid to Pakistan,which was followed by a $1.3 billion IMF poverty reduction programme andan agreement by the Paris Club of donors to restructure $12.5 billion ofdebt. The $3 billion of U.S. debt to be restructured is included in thislatter figure.USAID this month put in place a $100 million five-year programme to helpreform Pakistan's educational system and Washington is also providing lawenforcement assistance.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 26, 2002 (Xinhua News Agency via COMTEX) --Representatives from the World Bank Monday urged the developed countriesto cut their subsidies in agriculture, saying the subsidy element is a"major deterrent" to the development of all nations, especially thedeveloping world.Ian Johnson, World Bank vice president for sustainable development, madethe remarks while outlining the World Bank's agenda of priorities for theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), which kicked off Mondaymorning.Each year, 350 billion US dollars of taxpayer's money in the North areused as subsidies for agriculture, "preventing the South from meeting itsown obligations of agriculture," he told reporters at a WSSD newsbriefing."The subsidy element is certainly a barrier," Johnson said.Market access and agriculture subsidy are among the most controversialissues to be discussed at the Johannesburg summit, and some have urged theWorld Bank to play a more active role.Although the World Bank didn't act as strongly against subsidies as itshould have done, Johnson said that there have already been some changes."We have set up a trade department at the bank", he said, adding "We aretrying to really understand the impact of the 350 billion US dollarssubsides."

30 August, 2002 (Business Times) - BAKUN hydroelectric dam civil works’consortium leader Sime Darby Bhd may seek the support of four sistercompanies from Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) in supplying palm oil as partpayment to the Chinese partner in the project.

23 August, 2002 (Business Times) - THE Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB)has formalised a committee to assist the Government during tradenegotiations at World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) levels.

IPOH, Aug 24 (NSTP): Anti-palm oil activists have turned to usingalleged despoiling of the environment to discourage the consumption of thecommodity. Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik saidthese groups claimed that consumption of palm oil based products woulddestroy the forests in the developing world.

KUALA LUMPUR Saturday, August 24, 2002( The Star) - The Government ismulling over the possibility of consolidating all Felda land schemes sothat they can be managed professionally as an estate to overcome theproblems of Felda lands being left idle.A study to determine the feasibility of such plan is being carried out bythe Land and Co-operative Development Ministry.The plan is one of several measures being studied to discouragesecond-generation Felda settlers from selling their land.Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad said many of the currentgeneration of Felda settlers were not interested in working their land,especially those who were highly educated.“Many children of Felda settlers are highly educated. We can’t expect themto come back and tap rubber or work on their land. We have to think ofways to address this problem otherwise, the land would be left idle orwould be sold off.“Soon, most of Felda land schemes will face this problem. Some settlersallowed foreign workers to work on their land and this will create otherproblems,” he told reporters after opening a special gathering of thesecond generation of Felda settlers at the International IslamicUniversity near here.The land, he said, could yield better returns if it was managed by aprofessional team rather than as individual smallholdings and the higherprofit could be distributed to the settlers.Dr Mahathir said details of the plan, including whether the settlers wouldbe made shareholders of the company that would manage their lands, haveyet to be finalised.There are about 120,000 Felda settlers with a combined land holdingtotalling 447,246ha, of which 324,265ha was planted with palm oil whilethe rest with rubber.Earlier, when addressing the over 4,000 Felda settlers and their children,the Prime Minister advised them against selling their lands for quickprofit.“I understand that having worked so hard, some of you would like to savourthe fruits of your labour by selling your land. The thing is, land is anasset that will remain in your family for generations to come but moneywill disappear very fast, especially if you don’t know how to manage it.“I also know that there are some settlers who bought unnecessary luxurythings including Mercedes Benz cars after selling their land and this is ashame because if they are not careful, there will not be anything left forthe succeeding generation,” he added.Dr Mahathir later launched the Felda Generation Vision Fund for theeducation, training and welfare of the Felda community.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23: The Government may set up a company to take overthe 304 Felda settlements in the country, expressing fear that lack ofinterest among the younger generation may result in the land being leftidle, the Prime Minister said today.

PASIR MAS, Aug 23 (NSTP) - Many plantation companies, especially those inoil palm cultivation, are still reluctant to go into cattle rearing toboost the country’s food production, Agriculture Minister Datuk EffendiNorwawi said.

KOTA KINABALU Friday, August 23, 2002 (The Star) - Any proposed increasein sales tax on Sabah palm oil producers will be painless for theindustry, said state Finance Minister Datuk Musa Aman yesterday.He said ministry officials were getting feedback from the industry,including the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) and East MalaysiaPlanters Association (EMPA) representatives, before fixing the formula forthe sales tax increase.“We are listening to all suggestions,’’ Musa added after witnessing thesigning of a RM150mil syndicated loan deal between state-owned SawitKinabalu Bhd and three commercial banks here.At the initial meeting withministry officials last week, MPOA and EMPAmembers had indicated that the industry was willing to pay “a bit more’’in the palm oil sales tax.“I think their main concern was that the increaseshould not be too high,”said Musa.

23 August, 2002 (OIL WORLD) - World import demand for soybeans picked upin July. Combined soybean exports of the USA, Argentina and Brazil increased to an estimated 4.58 Mn T during the month, which is up by 0.5Mn T from June 2002 and by 0.4 Mn T from July 2001.

(The opinions expressed in this article represent the view of leadingpalm oil market analyst Ivan Wong. They should not be seen as necessarilyreflecting the views of Reuters)KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 - CPO production rose 6.9 percent or 65,100 tonnesto 1.01 million tonnes in July. A decline of 2.1 percent or 7,600 tonnesin East Malaysia was more than offset by an increase of 12.5 percent or72,700 tonnes in Peninsular Malaysia. On an annual basis, productionexpanded 12.4 percent.This was the second consecutive month of growth and brought growth inJune-July to seven percent. What is encouraging is that production inPeninsular Malaysia has turned positive in July after 10 months ofnegative growth. Production growth in East Malaysia meanwhile acceleratedto 31.7 percent in July from six percent in the first-six months. For thefirst-seven months this year, production in the country shrank 3.4 percentor 223,800 tonnes to 6.34 million tonnes. The deficit will shrink in thenext three months.Tentatively we estimate production in August to show a month-on-monthincrease of not less than five percent and a year-on-year increase ofeight percent. After two consecutive month-on-month declines in Sabah, thestate is expected to see a seasonal increase of not less than 10 percentthis month. The pickup started in late first month and continued strong infirst-half August.However, there are uncertainties on the sustainability of the pace inlater-half August and September due to a shortage of workers. The HomeMinistry Secretary General disclosed last Sunday that 318,000 illegalimmigrants left the country up to July 31 and 52,000 left in first-halfAugust. A majority of those who left this month were plantation workers inSabah. The August exodus might rise to 70,000.Employers may have to wait a month, if not longer, to recruit newworkers or to re-employ workers who return with proper documents. Palm oilofftake at one million tonnes in July or 11,000 tonnes higher than Junewas 15,000 tonnes above our estimate. This was offset by higher thanexpected imports.Consequently, end July stocks of palm oil at 942,000 tonnes were wellwithin our estimate and 29,000 tonnes higher than a month earlier. Palmoil exports rose a modest 4,300 tonnes to 883,300 tonnes in July and areexpected to show a biggerincrease of some 25,000 tonnes this month. Asthis is unlikely to match the rise in production, stocks of palm oil areestimated to increase 45,000 tonnes to 985,000 tonnes at end August.World market price of soybean and canola/rapeseed and major surged totheir highest levels in more than three years following the USDA releaseon August 12 of an unexpectedly large drop in estimated U.S. SB output andprojected tight supplies for U.S. SB and global oilseeds and vegoils in2002/2003. Hot and dry weather during July had resulted in a big drop inSB yield to 36.5 bushel (0.993 tonnes) per acre. Estimated SB output at2.628 billion bushel (71.53 million tonnes) represents a downward revisionof eight percent from projection made a month earlier and a contraction ofnine percent or 263 million bullish (7.14 million tonnes) from last year'sproduction.Reflecting chiefly contractions in output of canola/rapeseed of 2.3million tonnes and cottonseed of 2.8 million tonnes, world oilseedproduction in 2002/2003 was projected to drop 3.4 million tonnes to 319.9million tonnes. This would mark the first contraction since 1995/1996. TheUSDA projected global output of vegoils to increase 1.14 million tonnes to92.26 million tonnes but because of lower opening stocks, world supply ofvegoils in 2002/2003 is likely to be little changed compared to 2001/2002.Assuming a conservative growth in offtake of 1.37 million tonnes,stocks of vegoils were projected to drop 600,000 tonnes to 6.6 milliontonnes in the year ending September 2003. Stocks at end September 2002were estimated to fall 1.20 million tonnes from a year earlier. Meanwhilein India the Solvent Extractor Association cut its projected decline inedible oil production from the kharif oilseed crop to 500,000 tonnes. Thiswould be attributed chiefly to lower output of groundnut oil, the price ofwhich surged 15 percent or $150 over the last seven days. October CPOfutures settled at 1,519 ringgit and RBD olein at $430 yesterday, up from1,456 ringgit and $412.50 respectively last Friday.