21 January, 2002 (Business Times) - A UNITED States-based publicrelations company will be appointed next month to promote and maximise theuse of palm oil and byproducts from oil palm trees for the internationalmarket.The company, Arthur De'Little International, will be assigned to list downnew discoveries related to the oil palm products and find potentialcompanies that could develop end-products.The products will include those which use the oleochemical derivativesfrom the palm oil and the biomass which is made from the trunks, frondsand empty fruit branches of the trees.Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said the NationalEconomic Action Council had discussed the appointment of the company withthe Ministry on Saturday after it (NEAC) met the company's representativesrecently.Dr Lim said details of the terms and conditions of the appointment wouldbe disclosed after the agreement was signed in two weeks.He said most of the new discoveries made by the Palm Oil ResearchInstitute of Malaysia were not being utilised or commercialised.For example, he said, only two companies were involved in the productionand utilisation of fibreboard from oil palm biomass even though thecountry produced between 30 million and 50 million tonnes of theby-product annually.He said the Government also planned to promote the oleochemicalderivatives in China and other countries after it had been succesfullydeveloped and widely used in branded cosmetics and toiletries in Europeand the US.He said the Government was seeking to diversify the use of palm oilproducts after the commodity price plunged to as low as RM670 per tonne inFebruary last year."In the past two years the price of crude palm oil had several timesfallen below the production cost and that had severely affectedsmallholders," he told reporters after launching a free health-screeningprogramme for residents of Kampung Baru Ayer Tawar, Ayer Tawar in Perakyesterday.He said the new approach was needed to maintain the price of the commodityafter it had stabilised to between RM1,200 and RM1,300 per tonne in thepast few months.Price stability came about after the Government introduced severalmeasures which included requesting power generating companies to use palmoil as combustion fuel and encouraging replanting of oil palm trees amongsmallholders and estates.