Archived News

20 September 2001 (Business Times) - TENAGA Nasional Bhd will enter intofour separate deals by year-end to buy power from plants that are fuelledby renewable resources like biomass and gas produced from landfills.

NEW DELHI (20/9/200) - STUNG by rising edible oil imports and only asmall increase expected in kharif oilseeds crop, government has prepareda blueprint on derived oilseeds like cotton and perennial crops likecoconut and oil palm to increase the domestic production.

HYDERABAD, (Sept. 18) - THE soya crop in the country is in a criticalphase at present and if there are no rains in a couple of days, the cropoutput is estimated to decline drastically. A prolonged dry spell isaffecting the crop which currently at pod formation stage.

SUKKUR, Sept 17 (Asia Pulse) - The Pakistan Oilseeds Development Board(PODB) in Sindh plans to import 100,000 seedlings of oil-palm fromMalaysia in the current year, in order to meet the growing demand in thecoastal districts of Thatta (Sindh) and Uthal (Balochistan).The PODB's director in Sindh, Waris Shaikh, said the board had a balancequantity of 37,518 plants and there was a demand for 71,000 plants inthese two districts.He said in addition to promoting the non-traditional oilseed crops in thecountry, the PODB was also concentrating on the introduction of oil-palmplantations in the coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan, in collaborationwith the Malaysian government.The PODB director said there was a great potential for oil-palm sowing inthe coastal belt of Thatta, Badin, and Uthal.He said that in 1998-99, the PODB imported 135,000 oil-palm seedlings fromthe Malaysian Palm-oil Board, which are kept in two nurseries of Gharonear Thatta in Sindh and Uthal in Balochistan.He said both nurseries are in good condition. The plantation was made onprivate, public sector and state lands, he added.

HANOI, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- Minister of International Trade and IndustryDatuk Seri Rafidah Aziz said the concept of an Asean Free Trade Area(AFTA) has almost been realised with 98 percent of the products tradedamong the six original members being subject to reduced tariffs under theCommon Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme.

New Delhi, Sept 15 (Bernama) -- Edible oil imports in August this yearreached an all-time high of 654,000 tonnes in India.

JELEBU,16 September 2001 - The RM1 billion fund approved by the Governmentin April to help rubber and oil palm smallholders badly hit by the fall incommodity prices has not been fully utilised.

CAIRO, Sept 6 (Asia Pulse) - Indonesian and Egyptian companies have agreedto build a factory here to process crude palm oil (CPO) from Indonesiainto finished products.A joint venture agreement was signed here Tuesday between PT MisrindoUsama Perindo of Indonesia and a local partner Degla Group for Investment.The joint venture company will produce cooking oil and butter for Egyptianmarket and for exports to other countries in Middle East and Africa.So far Egypt has imported most of its CPO requirement from Malaysia,Indonesia's rival in CPO exports.The US$5 million plant, which is 90 per cent owned by the Indonesianpartner, is expected to increase Indonesian exports of CPO to Middle Eastand Africa.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, endowed with a host ofnatural resources such as natural rubber and palm oil, should redevelopproduct leadership in these sectors as well as in tourism to lessen itsdependence on electrical and electronic exports, says a regionaleconomist.

NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Asia Pulse) - The federal Agriculture Ministry is notin favour of the proposal made by Indian Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee and the federal Food Ministry for reduction of duty on palm oilimports saying it would harm the interests of the oilseed growers. It hasinstead recommended increasing the levy to over 200 per cent."In line with the PM's assurance during his trip to Malaysia and demand ofthe vanaspati industry, a cabinet note was prepared for duty reduction onpalm oil by the Food Ministry, but the Agriculture Ministry has foughtagainst it tooth and nail," official sources told PTI.They said when the Food ministry's note was circulated for comments to theFinance, Commerce and Agriculture Ministries, it was the latter which putits foot down.In their comments on the note, the Agriculture Ministry recommended anincrease in import duty on palm oils to over 200 per cent from the present75 per cent and 85 per cent on crude palm oil and RBD Palmoleinrespectively.Arguing their case the Agriculture ministry said at a time when a goodkharif oilseeds crop was due and efforts were being made to increase thearea under their production, a cut in duty would be a retrograde step.They said it would inevitably result in farmers getting unremunerativeprices for their crop, fall in acreage and oilseeds production leading tomore imports.They argued that cheap imports ensured that the inflow was much in excessof needs, spoiling the entire oil economy.With the agriculture ministry adamant on the matter, Finance Ministry--thedeciding authority-- would run the risk of antagonising one party toplacate another if it went ahead with reduction in duty, source added.

Kual a Lumpur, 17 September 2001 (Business Times) - AN AGREEMENT to extendRussia a US$50 million (US$1 = RM3.80) credit to buy about 200,000 tonnesof Malaysian palm oil has been put on hold.

KARACHI,9/17/2001(Business Recorder) - The Trading Corporation of Pakistan(TCP) has accepted offers for 4,250 tonnes of imported soybean oil, worth$36,505. The reserve price of the soybean oil was fixed at $36,505. Aspokesman of the TCP said that 30 lots of different weights of edible oilwere sold to various parties at the auction which was held at the TCP headoffice on Thursday.He said that 14 lots of 50 tonnes, 3 lots of 100 tonnes and 13 lots of 250tonnes of soybean oil were sold to the successful bidders.The TCP had floated a tender for the auction of 7,500 tonnes of importedsoybean oil last week. The edible oil is stored in different terminals ofthe Karachi Port.This was the third auction of the soybean oil, which was received lastmonth under the aid programme PL-416 (B) from the United States of America(USA).The corporation had earlier sold 8,700 tonnes at Karachi and 4,000 tonnesat Lahore.The US government will supply 75,000 tonnes of soybean oil and 165,000tonnes of soybean, worth $80 million, to Pakistan under the PL-4168programme.