Senior Malaysian, Indonesian Officials To Meet On Oil Palm Sector
24/10/2012 (Bernama) - Senior Malaysian and Indonesian officials will meet early next month to discuss areas of cooperation for the oil palm sector, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok.
Speaking to reporters after launching the Fifth National Seminar on Oil Palm Mechanisation 2012: Accelerating Mechanisation for Higher Productivity here today, he said Malaysia had an annual consultation with Indonesia as the world's largest palm oil producers.
He said on his recent visit to Indonesia, both countries had agreed to look at different areas of cooperation, such as, the amount of biodesel that should be put out on the market and the number of oil palm trees to be replanted annually.
Malaysia and Indonesia currently account for close to 90 per cent of the global palm oil production.
The oil palm industry is an important component of the agriculture sector in Malaysia, occupying more than 70 per cent of the planted area, while in Indonesia 4.6 million farmers are involved in it.
Asked if the tax on crude palm oil would be one of the issues to be discussed at the meeting, Dompok said it should be left to the individual countries.
Earlier in his speech, Dompok said the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) had made breakthroughs in developing farm machinery for utilisation by plantations.
He said to date, the MPOB had invented and developed more than 30 machines of which several had been commercialised, including the oil palm motorised cutter called Cantas.
"The use of Cantas for harvesting has been shown to significantly raise productivity to 2.8 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches per worker per day from 1.5 tonnes," he added.
At the event, MPOB in collaboration with Mizou Holdings Sdn Bhd also launched another new machine, Rhyno, a multipurpose wheel type transporter, which will complement the track type machine, Beluga.
Dompok also witnessed the signing of an agreement between MPOB and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) to carry out research collaboration on farm mechanisation.