Wednesday August 4, 2004 - SARAWAK will have two more palm oil refineriesand 10 new mills to cater to the rapidly expanding oil palm industry.

State Rural and Land Development Ministry's permanent secretary ChaitiBolhassan said one of the new refineries in Kidurong, Bintulu, wasexpected to be operational in three months while another in Senari,Kuching, would be commissioned by late 2005.

He said the proposed 10 new mills were in various stages of construction.

There are now 26 mills in operation, with a combined throughput of over4.8 million tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) a year, Chaiti said inhis paper on Challenges and prospects of oil palm industry in Sarawak at aseminar organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council in Kuchinglast Monday.

Chaiti said the area planted with oil palm in Sarawak had grown from24,100ha in 1981 to over 474,000ha last year.

He said the growth had been spurred by the entry of peninsular-basedplantation firms like Perlis Plantation Bhd, Golden Hope Plantations Bhd,Austral Enterprises Bhd and Tradewide Plantations Services Sdn Bhd, whichopened up estates along the Bintulu-Miri sector in the 1980s.

Major logging-based companies such as Rimbunan Hijau Sdn Bhd, WTK HoldingsBhd and KTS Holdings Sdn Bhd, then followed suit as they diversified theiractivities into the plantation sector.

Studies have shown that the state has 3.9 million hectares suitable foroil palm cultivation.

Chaiti said the state Government has set a target of 1 million hectares tobe fully developed into oil palm plantations by 2010.

This will comprise 600,000ha state land and 400,000ha native customaryrights land.