Archived News

Saturday October 30, 2004 - ALTHOUGH Kulim (M) Bhd recently joined theexclusive club of listed Malaysian plantation companies with more than100,000 ha of land each, it has yet to gain the kind of attention amonginvestors that the others do.

2/11/04 KARACHI: Malaysia and Pakistan have are agreed in principle toestablish a preferential tariff arrangement during two-day meeting of thejoint ministerial commission meeting at Kuala Lumpur, said a press releaseissued by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on Monday.

BOTA, Nov 1 - The Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority(Risda) may use the National Land Code to compulsorily acquire the morepoorly managed estates of smallholders if all else fails.Risda chairman Datuk Abd Raman Suliman hinted that the organisation mightresort to such drastic measures should these smallholders refuse to allowtheir estates to be managed by Risda Smallholders Plantations Sdn Bhd(RSPSB).

10/28/2004 (Asia Pulse) ZHENGZHOU - China's soybean oil consumption hasgrown sharply, with the country's edible consumption of soybean oiltopping 5.6 million tons in 2003/2004.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- Energy, Water and CommunicationsMinister, Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, said that Renewable Energy (RE)could be developed further in Malaysia to generate long-term energy needs,including electricity supply.

27/10/2004 (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- By studying cancer in mice,researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have gained preliminaryevidence that a novel compound that resembles vitamin E halves the size oftumors and the ability of cancer to spread to other body sites.

23/10/04 - Customs data showed China imported 1.45 million tons of soybeanin September, down 51.5%, and 13.95 million tons of soybean from Januaryto September, down 21.2%. China imported 43,000 tons of soyoil inSeptember, down 15.8% and 2.044 million tons of soyoil from January toSeptember, up 70.6%. China imported 354,000 tons of palm oil in September,down 0.5% and 2.757 million tons of palm oil from January to September, up10%.

27/10/2004 Agra Europe - Higher import quotas by China has spurredIndonesia, the world's second largest palm oil producer after Malaysia, tobelieve it can boost exports to the East Asian giant.

Ho,Ghana Oct 27, (GNA)- GRATIS Foundation has initiated moves to helplocal oil-palm producers in the Volta Region to change over from pressingpalm fruits in dug-outs with their feet to using a micro palm fruitdigester. The digester, which is capable of processing five tonnes of palmfruits per hour, costs 2.5 million cedis.

26/10/04 (Dow Jones)--China and ASEAN have agreed to eliminate tariffs onmerchandise goods by 2010 as part of ongoing free-trade agreement talks;Beiking Ministry of Commerce says deal to be signed next month andreductions begin next year. That should further open up China to rawmaterials trade from ASEAN. Trade with ASEAN already accounts for morethan 10% of China's total annual trade volume.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 - Felcra Bhd aims to venture into the lucrative herbindustry to diversify its business and reduce its dependency on rubber andpalm oil earnings.

26/10/04 - In Brazil unfavourably dry conditions continued to affectsoybean plantings and early germination in the states of Mato Grosso,Goias and Minas Gerais. However, some good rainfall was received on Oct 24and 25 in southern parts of Mato Grosso do Sul, Parana, Santa Catarina andparts of Rio Grande do Sul. Overall, soybean plantings are running behindand crop prospects have deteriorated due to the detrimental weather inMato Grosso, which was Brazil’s largest soybean producing state last year.ABIOVE estimates this year’s soybean crop at 61.5 Mn T, up from 50.8 Mn Tlast year. Last week we published our crop estimate of 60.0 Mn T andpointed out that this year’s total Brazilian soybean plantings will fallshort of expectations. The first planting estimate of CONAB is scheduledto be released today.ABIOVE reported soybean crushings of members at 2.25 Mn T in Sept, downseasonally from 2.43 Mn T in August. Basis this information, we estimatetotal Brazilian soybean crushings at 2.58 Mn T in Sept compared with 2.80Mn T a month and 2.55 Mn T a year earlier.