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KUANTAN, Tuesday, December 4, 2001 (The Star) - Pahang will gazetteanother 100,396ha of land as forest reserve to add to the 2.1 millionhectares already gazetted in an effort to provide more tree cover.Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the government wanted more areasto be protected under the various environmental laws.“The government is concerned with the depletion of forest reserves and toshow our seriousness to safeguard the environment, the government willcontinue with the policy in the years to come.“In the effort to provide more tree cover, the government has included thecreation of palm oil and rubber plantations throughout the state.“These trees are as good as forest trees to provide the greening as partof the government’s strategy,” Adnan said recently.He said Pahang still stands as one of the states with the most tree cover,adding that about 57.12% of the state was covered with forest andplantations.He said that the government would continue with the sustainable forestmanagement as stipulated by the National Forestry Council.He said that under the Eighth Malaysian Plan, the government would onlyfell 10,700 trees as decided by the council.“We are in the midst of providing incentives for the private sector toventure into such plantations on a commercial basis,” he added.To improve logging techniques, Adnan said the government would imposelogging methods that cause minimal environmental damage.He said the time had come for loggers to shift to other logging methods toreduce the environmental damage.

USA, (The Express) December 01, 2001 - PRESSURE for an end tocontroversial large-scale trials of GM crops intensified yesterday afterclaims that a field of GM "weeds" had been discovered.The oilseed rape covering at least 15 acres was found at a site usedearlier this year in one of the Government's GM trials.The programme is designed to test the environmental impact of the powerfulherbicides used with modified crops.The plants, in a field near Grantham, Lincolnshire, may have grown fromseeds spilled when the crop was harvested - and a large proportion are nowin flower thanks to a mild autumn.This has fuelled fears that they could cross-pollinate with andcontaminate nearby conventional oilseed rape and wild relatives.The Government last night ordered an inquiry into the claims. Unwanted GMplants would have to be destroyed.Campaigners Friends of the Earth yesterday called on the Government toprosecute the biotech company involved, Aventis.FoE spokesman Pete Riley said: "The biotech industry has gone too far, toofast and is now out of control."It's time the Government said enough is enough and called an immediatehalt to this dangerous experiment."Aventis last night insisted it had done nothing wrong. A spokesman said itwas allowed "to encourage any seeds dropped to germinate so we can go inlater and destroy them" .

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Siemens AG, which has stamped its markbuilding large-scale power generation projects using petroleum, coal andhydro, wants to share its oil palm biomass expertise to produce energy inMalaysia, says a company official.

Kuala Lumpur, (New Straits Times )11/30/2001 - NINETEEN countries in WestAsia are important markets for Malaysian palm oil, Deputy PrimaryIndustries Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said.He said among the countries are Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq,Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Oman and Tunisia.He said between 1996 and 2000, 5.33 million tonnes of palm oil had beenexported to these destinations compared with 4.63 million tonnes to Europeand 0.65 million tonnes to the United States.Epypt is the highest importer among the West Asian countries with 400,000tonnes a year followed by Turkey (160,000 tonnes) and Saudi Arabia(140,000 tonnes).Answering a question by Jamilah Ibrahim, he said palm oil prices had risenfrom RM700 to RM800 per tonne early this year to about RM1,000 per tonnenow.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The following are factors likely toaffect the performance of Malaysian palm oil futures on Wednesday:* Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soyoil futures settled down 0.07 to0.20 cent per lb on Tuesday, with December down 0.20 cent at 16.09 andJanuary down 0.16 cent at 16.26 cents.* One technical analyst in Kuala Lumpur pegged key support at 1,120ringgit in Malaysia's crude palm oil futures."It is crucial for the market to hold above 1,120 ringgit from todayonwards. Many technical indicators are already forming a negativepattern," the analyst said."If the market can break the resistance levels of 1,170 and 1,191 andinstead trade below 1,120, the downside risk will increase," she said.Malaysian crude palm oil ended mostly lower on Tuesday, but withbenchmark February rebounding on technicals and talk the government hasselected firms to be allowed to export CPO without duty.Third-month February futures was down one ringgit at 1,142 ringgit($300.53) a tonne. Volume was heavy at 2,318 lots.Malaysia said earlier this month it would allow duty-free export of 1.3million tonnes of crude palm oil in 2002 to boost the market and helpreduce stocks.This year, the government allowed seven companies to export one milliontonnes of CPO without duty. It said firms which had used up their quotafor 2001 could apply for a new one and would be given permission toutilise next year's allocation starting in December.Malaysia imposes an export tax on CPO on a graduated scale starting at10 percent on prices above 600 ringgit in order to protect itsrefiners.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Pakistan's palm oil imports may reach220,000 tonnes a month over the next few months because of the prospect ofexports to neighbouring Afghanistan and a reduced cottonseed oil crop,traders said on Monday.Pakistan normally buys 80,000 tonnes of palm oil a month from theworld's largest producers, Malaysia and Indonesia."We expect strong demand to continue until March. When things aresettling down, Pakistan will be exporting a lot of oil to Afghanistan,"said one trader in Malaysia."About 70 percent of the oil shipped to Pakistan will come fromMalaysia and I expect imports to reach 220,000 tonnes in November andDecember each," he added.Some traders dealing with Pakistan said rising imports also stemmedfrom several purchases by the United Nations to help the Afghan refugees.Other factors included a smaller local cottonseed oil crop, which isexpected to fall 50,000 tonnes to 400,000 this year, and better demandduring the Muslim Ramadan fasting month.The U.N. said on Sunday Afghan refugees had started returning from Iranto their homes in the west of the country but tens of thousands were stilltrying to flee from the east into Pakistan.The United States has led a war to punish the Taliban for harbouringSaudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden who is accused of masterminding theSeptember 11 attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 4,000people.

11/21/2001,(Southeast Farm Press) - One need only look at the current U.S.soybean supply and demand balance sheet to see that the 1996 Freedom toFarm legislation isn't working as intended, says Gerald A Bange, chairmanof the USDA World Agricultural Outlook Board."Soybean production for 2001-02 is forecast at 2.834 million bushels, andthis is coming off a year when the average market price was $4.55 perbushel," says Bange. "Freedom to Farm isn't working because farmersapparently are not responding to market signals. And these market signalsare being buffered somewhat by government programs." Export situationTurning to soybean exports, Bange says U.S. farmers should be able to holdsteady at one million bushels. "For some years now we've been estimatingsoybean exports at one billion bushels. We finally reached that number in2000-2001, and we're expecting to hold exports at essentially the samenumber for 2001-2002."Ending stocks for U.S. soybeans are expected to increase from 240 millionbushels to about 255 million bushels, he says, but a stronger market pricestill is expected for U.S. producers in 2001-02."The range for the average market price is $4.40 to $5.40 per bushel, sowe should see a price of about $4.90 per bushel. Even with our endingstocks actually increasing, we still should see a stronger price. And muchof this is due to the current demand for soybeans coming out of China,"says the economist.The current downward pressure being seen in the soybean market can beattributed to several factors, says Bange. "The Brazilians are talkingabout a 45 million ton crop. This is the crop that will be harvested afterthe first of next year. If they don't have weather problems, theBrazilians will have a big crop, and that will have an impact on prices.They've had several years of good weather, and if it happens again, we'llsee a lot of competition from Brazil," he says.Another factor causing concern in the markets is China's position onGMO's, adds Bange. "Right now, China is making rumblings about GMO's.China is a major soybean importer, and when they say they're thinkingabout which GMO's to allow into their country, the entire market becomesnervous and prices are affected."Since about 1980 or 1981, U.S. soybean stocks have decreased gradually, hesays, but U.S. prices have not risen accordingly."If we look at the market in 1985-86, very low prices were associated witha very high stock level. Now, we have relatively low stocks, but the priceis still low. With ending stocks for 2000-2001 at 240 million bushels, wehave an average market price of $4.55 per bushel or an 8.5 percentstocks-to-use ratio. South America"But we have to look at the impact of Brazilian and Argentine stocks toget the whole picture. If you count these stocks at about the same timethat you're counting U.S. stocks, you'll see that the worldwide stockslevel has risen sharply. We can't look only at what is happening in theUnited States."China, says Bange, has become a major importer of soybeans, and this hasoccurred since the mid-1990s. "In 1993 and 1994, China was importingvirtually nothing. Now, they're importing about 14 million metric tons.Given what is occurring in Brazil, and what has happened with U.S.production, this market really would be in the pits were it not forChina's imports. It's bad enough as it is, but it would be much worse ifChina wasn't taking these 14 million tons off the market."This 14 million tons isn't coming from the United States alone. Abouthalf of it comes from the United States and the other half comes fromelsewhere in the world. For awhile, China was importing oil. Now, theyprovide their own labor and press the beans themselves." Two primaryreasonsThere are two primary reasons China is importing so many soybeans, saysBange. One is for feed consumption -- as their incomes have risen, theChinese have put more soybeans into animal feeds."The Chinese have built a lot of processing plants along the coastalareas, and they're importing a lot of beans for those plants. They alsohave a nutrition program where they're feeding soymilk in the schools.They've expanded their processing capacity, so we think they'll be in thesoybean business for some time. If, for whatever reason, they cut off this14 million tons of imports, it would have a devastating impact on U.S. andworld markets."Brazil's soybean production is worrisome for the U.S. market, says Bange.Brazil is anticipating a production of 40 million tons for 2001-02. Thisis up from about 15 million tons in 1985-86."Brazil is moving its production -- they're trading off their morevaluable land for cheaper, more productive land. And Brazilians aren'thappy with U.S. farm programs. A formal complaint to WTO already is inprogress. Brazil has almost doubled its soybean production in the past 10years."The collapse of the real -- Brazil's form of currency -- also has had aneffect on the soybean markets. Since July of 2000, the real has fallen 49percent against the U.S. dollar. A weak real means that their ability tocompete with the United States is greater. The Brazilian price isimproving because of this weak currency, and that gives them a competitiveadvantage. They can undercut us.Argentina, says Bange, also is producing more soybeans. "When we look atthe combined increase of Brazil and Argentina versus the United States,it's been phenomenal."Farmland values, he says, are beginning to hamper U.S. producers' abilityto compete in a world market. "USDA has done a fair amount of research tohelp determine who can produce the cheapest soybeans. In terms of variablecosts of production, U.S. producers can beat competitors `hands down.' Ourproblem is that land values are being capitalized into the cost equation."Overall, our competitors can produce more cheaply because we're factoringin high land values. Land values have been rising, so this is causing somedifficulty for U.S. producers. As the cost of land rises, it goes backinto the cost of production. And though we can beat our competitors onvariable costs, we can't beat them on total costs."

MUMBAI, Nov. 26 (Business Line) - GLOBAL production of major oilseeds islikely to reach a new high in 2001-02 on the back of record soyabeanoutput, so will oilseeds crush. This will lead to record protein mealproduction, consumption and trade in the current year. World vegetable oilproduction, consumption and trade will also witness expansion but at aslower rate leading to drawdown of stocks.On current reckoning, production of major oilseeds and oil-bearingmaterial is forecast to record 323 million tonnes in 2001-02, up from 311mt last year. A 9 mt increase in soyabean output to an unprecedented 182.5mt, a 3 mt increase in cottonseed to 36.5 mt and 2.5 mt in groundnut to33.7 mt will be partially offset by lower sunflowerseed and rapeseed crop,according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).Latest estimate suggests soyabean output in the US will reach anunprecedented 79.5 mt, up from 75 mt of 2000-01, while forecast for Braziland Argentina (crop to be harvested in February 2002) will scale newhighs, continuing the consistent rise of the last few years.Brazil's soyabean production for 2001-02 is forecast at 41.5 mt (38.4 mt)and Argentina 28 mt (26.7 mt). Both China (15.3 mt) and India (5.6 mt)have more or less maintained their production volumes.Global oilseeds crush this year will expand to 263.5 mt (255 mt)encouraged by 7.5 mt increase in soyabean crush to 155 mt Together withhigher cottonseed and groundnut crushing, global protein meal productionis slated to reach 182.2 mt, of which soyameal will account for 123 mt.In case of major vegetable oils, the USDA has forecast production for2001-02 at 90.6 mt (88.7 mt) and consumption at 90.7 mt (88.2 mt). Acombined 1.1 mt reduction in rapeseed oil and sunoil production will bemore than offset by higher soyabean, palm, groundnut and cottonseed oilsproduction.Palm oil production: Malaysia national monthly average rainfall in the2001 third quarter fell below normal for only the second time in the last10 quarters.Additionally, excess precipitation in November 2000-January 2001 is likelyto reduce palm oil production prospects.As high yields are typically associated with above-average precipitation,the reduced third quarter has reduced palm oil yield prospects, USDA hassuggested.During 2001-02, Malaysian palm oil production is forecast at 12.2 mt, upfrom 11.9 mt of last year when the average yield was 4.06 tonnes perhectare. Malaysian palm oil area is currently estimated at 3.31 millionhectares and the yield is expected to be lower than last year's.

NEW DELHI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Indian officials were non-committal onWednesday about any immediate plans to revise the base prices for palmolein.Rumours have been circulating in the market this week that India, theworld's largest edible oil importer, plans to raise its RBD palm oleinbase price to $340 a tonne from $307.India fixes the base prices of various edible oils to preventunder-invoicing and to ensure the government does not lose revenue fromimport duties. Importers will have to pay duty on the fixed import pricesof the oil irrespective of the actual purchase prices.Traders in Kuala Lumpur said India uses an average C&F price for palmoil, in this case November, to determine the base price for the followingmonth.One official in the Finance Ministry said there was no immediate plansto change the base prices for edible oils but declined to comment further.Other ministry officials were also not forthcoming on the issue.In the key Malaysian market December RBD palm olein was offered onWednesday at $312.50, with January at $317.50 and February/March at $325.India imported a record 4.8 million tonnes of edible oils in the yearto October 2001, up from 4.49 million the previous year, according to theindustry estimates.Annual demand for edible oil in India is forecast to rise to 13-14million tonnes by 2004/05 (Nov-Oct), from about 11 million tonnes atpresent.

JAKARTA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Indonesia is seen producing around 8 milliontonnes of crude palm oil in 2001, far above its earlier forecast, due tonew plantations starting to yield their crop, a senior industry officialsaid on Thursday.The world's second largest palm oil producer had earlier forecastproduction at 7.3 million tonnes this year.Nafis Daulay, Chairman of the Indonesian Edible Oils Association(AIMMI) said Indonesia had exported 1.53 million tonnes of crude palm oil(CPO) in the first ten months of this year, while exports of its byproducts in CPO equivalent reached 2.18 million tonnes.Around 2.8 million tonnes of CPO was sold in the domestic market duringthe same period, he said."Output in November and December is seen at 1.4 million at least, sothe total production will reach more than 8 million tonnes," Daulay toldReuters.The Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) earlier forecastthe country to produce 7.3 million tonnes in 2001, an increase from around6.5 million tonnes a year earlier.But while he forecast a rise in production, Daulay said the total for2001 would not be as high as 8.5 million tonnes, a figure expected by manyregional palm oil traders.

NEW DELHI, Nov 27 (Asia Pulse) - Online trading in edible oil startedtoday in Bombay, and is expected to facilitate the trade in refined,bleached and deodorized palm oil futures contracts with remote importersand overseas investors.India is the largest importer of edible oil and imported 4.8 milliontonnes in the 2000-01 season (November-October).Online trading will help take instant decisions as traders would haveready access to price trends. It eliminates delay in information flow byallowing direct trading, market sources said here.They said Bombay exchange trades about 4 million rupees worth of RBD palmoil futures a day. That could surge to 150 They said Bombay exchangetrades about 4 million rupees worth of RBD palm oil futures a day. Thatcould surge to 150 million rupees once it starts being traded online,traders said. RBD palm oil isn't traded on any other exchange in theworld.

ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, NOV 18, 2001 (A&G News via COMTEX) -- The minimumimport duty on sunflower,rapeseed and soybean oils will beincreased fromEURO 0.09 to EURO 0.14 per1 kg of bottled production and to EURO 0.1fornon-packaged oil.