Mumbai , Nov. 5 - FOLLOWING intense pressure mounted by the palm oilimporters' lobby and with a view to bringing the vexed `carotenoid contentin crude palm oil' issue to a finale, the Government has decided toconduct an on-the-spot study at the point of production and shipment.

For this purpose, a three-member delegation of scientists from RegionalResearch Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram (RRL) is scheduled to visitIndonesia, the main supplier of crude palm oil and crude palmolein to thecountry. The visit will last 14 days.

The RRL scientists are expected to go to the port of loading and drawsamples from export consignments. These samples would be analysed forvarious quality parameters, including carotenoid content.

Both shore-tank and ship-tank samples are to be drawn for the purpose ofanalysis.

In addition, the delegation would visit palm oil mills and draw samples atthe point of production.

The effect of ocean voyage and whether the level of carotene decreasesover time and by how much would also be examined.

Confirming the news of the Centre's clearance for the visit, Prof T.K.Chandrasekhar, Director of RRL, told Business Line that the Indian Embassyin Jakarta would co-ordinate the tour and organise meetings for the Indianscientists with producers and shippers.

According to an oil technologist, the consignments of crude and refinedpalmoils coming into the country show little difference in qualitystandards, raising doubts about the declaration of cargo quality.

The Government has imposed a Customs duty of 65 per cent on crude palm oilwith a condition that the carotene content should be not less than 500parts per million. On refined oil, the rate of duty is 75 per cent.

The Government was forced to impose the carotenoid stipulation last yearfollowing the expose that some importers were engaging in misdeclarationof refined oil as crude oil to take advantage of the duty differential.

Earlier, it was RRL that studied the palm oil quality issue in-depth andfound carotene content to be the critical differentiating feature betweencrude and refined palm oils. Importers have been claiming that carotene isnot stable and that in palm oil it decreases over time and when heated intanks.