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Kuala Lumpur, 26 July 2001 (Business Times) - THE Forest ResearchInstitute Malaysia (Frim) is holding talks with a government landdevelopment agency to promote agro-forestry among smallholders to helpthem improve their earnings.

KUALA LUMPUR, 24 July 2001 (Business Times) - Owners of oil palmplantations have seven more days to register with the Malaysian Palm OilBoard to receive an incentive of RM1,000 per hectare for replanting oilpalm trees.

Thursday, July 26, 2001 - PALM OIL traders have been advised againsthoarding stock in the hope that prices will further increase in the nearfuture as high production months are up ahead in September and Octoberthis year.According to Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik,although steps taken by his ministry over the last four months hadresulted in palm oil prices escalating to about RM1,200 a tonne, fromRM800, the downward trend could recur."Remember, whatever goes up can come down again," Lim said, adding thatwhile both palm oil and soya oil prices had increased recently, soya oilprices were still higher compared with palm oil's.Lim told reporters this after opening a seminar on medicinal and aromaticplants organised by the Forest Research Institute Malaysia in Kuala Lumpuron Tuesday.According to Lim, it is still possible for palm oil prices to climb higherby an additional RM200 to RM250 a tonne, placing their prices at the samelevel as that of soya oil in international markets.He said, however, that the current price discrepancy was testimony to thefact that palm oil had not been marketed aggressively enough."Plantation firms should also consider diversifying their activities toreduce dependence on a single crop," Lim said, adding that only a fewcompanies had taken up the call.According to Lim, mono-crop planters have in the past been advised towiden their scope of activities and look to cattle rearing or herbalplantation as a supplementary source of income.Unfortunately, he said, the plantation sector had proved to be veryconservative and preferred to "stick only to what they know best.""As Malaysia becomes a high-cost producer, owing to rising labour costs,plantation companies will have to think of other competitive ways to makefull use of the land and its natural resources," Lim said.Using the herbal market as an example, Lim said the herbal and aromaticmarket in Malaysia was valued at RM4.55bil but only 5% of the productsused were sourced locally because there was still the tendency to use oldtechnology which gave little added value to the product.

KUALA LUMPUR July 23 , 2001 10:05AM - An invitation to professionals toreturn home and an idea to recycle palm oil fibre waste prompted anenterprising Malaysian engineer working overseas to spawn a project thatis helping to heal the many areas left scarred by land development.

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CPO set for further volatile trade23/7/01(The Star) - CRUDE PALM OIL futures prices at the MalaysiaDerivatives Exchange (MDEX) resumed its bullish momentum last week andrebounded sharply in early trading, but the upward rally fizzled as theOctober contract failed to hold successfully above the RM1,200 per tonnelevel and encouraged many long position holders to realised their windfallprofits.The October futures contract was lifted from a weekly low of RM1,026 tofresh contract highs at RM1,238 and returned a large portion of itsearlier gains to settled the week higher at RM1,145, up RM65 per tonnefrom a week ago.Based on chart, the October futures prices are set for more wide range andchoppy trading and volatility would likely reign this week considering thelarge amount of short-term money moving in and out of the market motivatedby short-term ideas recently.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rebounded from early lows on Monday as political tension in neighbouring Indonesia sparked talk of supply disruptions, traders said.By the midday break, the third-month October contract eased seven ringgitto 1,140 ringgit ($300) a tonne compared with Friday's closing at 1,147ringgit.

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