12/31/2004 BERNAMA KUALA LUMPUR -- By the year 2010, Tradewinds (M) Bhd'score business is likely to be oil palm cultivation, followed by sugarrefinery, following the company's decision to shift from its non-coreactivities like property investment and development.

"Our focus will be on two things, sugar and palm oil," Tradewinds chairmanDatuk Dr Mohd Noor Ismail told reporters after the company's extraordinarygeneral meeting here today.

Our agriculture land bank is about 113,000 hectares and we intend todevelop in phases and we have developed 11,000 hectares in 2004. Next yearwe will develop about 5,000 to 6,000 hectares, he added.

In 2005, Tradewinds palm oil acreage is expected to increase from thepresent 72,000 hecatres to 140,000 hecatres.

With the current selling price of crude palm oil at about RM1,600 pertonne, Dr Mohd Noor considers the crop as a potential money earner for thecompany in the future.

The company's crude palm oil production is also on the upward trend, itrose from 137,000 tonnes in 2003 to 180,000 tonnes this year.

Harvest of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) increased to 800,000 tonnes this yearfrom 600,000 tonnes in 2002 and "we expect to reach about 1.5 milliontonnes in 2005, about 20 percent increase," he said.

"(Moreover) our trees are still young. In the next eight years we willhave a lot of crop to depend on," said Dr Mohd Noor.

At present, 60 percent of the company's revenue comes from sugar while 40percent is from palm oil.

"The present 60:40 ratio will be reversed in 2007 as price of oil palm ismore stable now," he added.

In the case of sugar, the company hopes to increase its domestic marketshare from the current 26 percent to 42 percent in the near future.