Monday, October 29, 2001 (The Star) - ALL parties involved in the oil palmindustry need to overcome problems of declining palm oil extraction rate(OER) amid competition from other countries, said Primary IndustriesMinister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.He said if a party involved in the industry took a lackadaisical attitude,this would affect the oil palm industry's revenue. As such, he hoped allparties involved would give serious attention to achieving the OER targetof 25%.Dr Lim said this in his speech at the Oil Palm Industry and Malaysian PalmOil Board (MPOB) Awards ceremony 2001 on Friday.He said that looking at the average percentage of OER for mills inPeninsular Malaysia, only four mills had succeeded in achieving theaverage of more than 20%, while 36 others registered OER of an average of19% and above and 204 more still at the 19% level.Dr Lim said the decline was due to inefficient management, especially indetermining that only quality oil palm was sent to the mills.As such, he said, all plantations and small-scale entrepreneurs shouldtighten the quality of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by harvesting only thosethat were really ripe.“There is also a need to implement a proper grading of the fruits acceptedat the mills,’’ he said. — Bernama