04/03/2015 (Bernama) - Africa is an attractive place to undertake large-scale oil palm cultivation, said Olam International Ltd group managing director/chief executive officer, said Sunny Verghese.

Verghese, who is also a co-founder of Olam, said the continent offered large and suitable parcels of land for oil palm cultivation.

"Government-led land deals, micro financing options by regional banks and favourable tax regimes are among the factors which contributed to the attractiveness of Africa," he said in his presentation, 'Africa: The next Frontier for Palm Opportunities and Challenges' at the three-day Palm and Lauric Oils Conference here Tuesday.

Apart from that, Verghese said, Africa offered strong market potentials as CPO exports from the continent to European Union countries were duty-free.

The agriculture sector in Africa required significant new investments estimated at US$200 billion and at present, 1.5 million hectares of land had been approved for palm oil development in Liberia, Cameroon and Gabon, he said.

He said the African communities welcomed corporations for planting vast areas of land with oil palm plantations.

Palm oil, one of the earliest-traded commodities, has been widely used globally, with China and India being the largest consumers.

Olam, an agri-business company is 58.5 per cent owned by Singapore's Temasek Holdings.

It is involved in plantations, procurement, logistics, trading, processing and distribution.