Jun 18 2004 - FELDA'S highly diversified palm oil related businesses arepoised to be the benchmark for those in the global palm oil industry, saidgroup chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Yusof Noor.

He said the group was the world's largest fully integrated palm oil-basedgroup with 92 plants under its wings, both in Malaysia and overseas.

This is indeed a remarkable achievement for a Malaysian group and our maintarget now is to further raise the quality and standards of our operationsto be at par with those in the developed countries,” Dr Yusof said.

He said about 60% of Felda's group of companies had received ISOcertification.

By the year-end, we are hopeful that the entire group will have theseaccreditations, Dr Yusof told StarBiz after the ISO and OHSAS 2004(Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series) presentation to eightFelda companies in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said Felda Palm Industries Bhd for example, aimed to attain the MS ISO14001 and 9001 certifications for its 72 palm oil mills by the end of nextyear.

Asked if the group would increase its plantation activities overseas, DrYusof said: The focus right now is for domestic plantation activities aswell as downstream activities until 2006 as we are committed to increasethe income of smallholders.

The group is currently Malaysia’s largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO)with 2.53 million tonnes recorded last year. It also produced 700,568tonnes of palm kernel and 200,030 tonnes of rubber in the same period.

Of the total 820,000ha owned by the group, about 340,000ha of plantationsbelong to Felda Holdings Bhd while Felda settlers hold about 480,000ha.

Apart from palm oil milling and refining, the group also manufacturesstandard Malaysian rubber, latex concentrates, rubber gloves, cocoapowder, compound fertilisers, molasses and refined sugar. It also offersservices like engineering, construction, property development, informationtechnology, retailing, security and travel to both local and internationalclients.

On the proposed listing of Felda Holdings on Bursa Malaysia, Dr Yusofsaid: It is up to the Cabinet to decide. On our part, we are ready witheverything well in place.