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Indonesia says finds hydrocarbon traces in palm oi
calendar07-06-2002 | linkNULL | Share This Post:

JAKARTA, June 3 (Reuters) - Indonesia said on Monday it had found tracesof hydrocarbon in one of its crude palm kernal oil (CPKO) cargoes sent toEurope last month but dismissed market talk there was any dieselcontamination.Rumours have swirled in Malaysia's palm oil market that several cargoeshad been contaminated by diesel oil, reminiscent of the 1999 scandal thattarnished the image of Indonesia, the world's second largest grower andexporter after Malaysia."There was a higher hydrocarbon level in one or two tanks but it wasn'tsignificant although it is a warning for local palm oil producers to bemore careful in handling exports," Derom Bangun, chairman of theIndonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI), told Reuters."No, it is not tainted by diesel oil, and we haven't received anycomplaints from buyers," he added but did not say how the traces ofhydrocarbon may have got into the cargoes.In 1999, some 85,000 tonnes of diesel-tainted crude palm oil (CPO) werefound to have been shipped from Belawan port in Sumatra to Rotterdam.Indonesia said last year it was working hard to convince buyers such anincident would never happen again.Trade sources said Indonesia produced some 8.2 million tonnes of palm oilin 2001, with some 60 percent being exported. The largest exportdestinations are the European Union, India and China.

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