16/09/05 KUALA LUMPUR, (Bernama) -- Kulim (Malaysia) Bhd's venture in theSolomon Islands is on track to export its first batch of crude palm oil(CPO) to Europe in the second quarter of 2006.

Kulim, via its subsidiary New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL), acquired 80percent of Solomon Island-based Guadalcanal Plains Palm Oil Ltd (GPPOL) inApril this year and began to rehabilitate the plantation which had beenabandoned since 1999.

The overseas investment is about to reap early returns with its maidenexport under Kulim ownership, when the CPO will be shipped to countries inEurope from April next year.

"Our move to acquire and rehabilitate the 6,500-hectare oil palmplantation in the Solomon Islands earlier this year has borne fruit soonerthan planned," said Kulim's managing director Ahamad Mohamad.

"We gave ourselves between two and three years to fully revive theoperation and the progress has been ahead of our expectations where anumber of the once abandoned plantation has been successfully revived," hesaid.

Ahamad said Kulim would invest over RM70 million to rehabilitate theSolomon Islands plantation, to do replanting, reconstruct a 30-tonne perhour palm oil mill and restart production.

"Given the bright future of our Solomon operations, we are expecting ourventure there to start contributing income to the Kulim group in 2006," hesaid.

"At the same time, we are also looking at expanding the current plantationarea to approximately 15,000 hectares over the next five years," he added.

In 2004, Kulim's plantation operations recorded revenue of RM818.17million versus RM596.61 million in 2003, resulting in the plantationdivision contributing 56.24 percent to total revenue.

In addition, 2004 saw NBPOL increased its CPO productions and profits,while Kulim's local estate operations remained among those with thehighest yield per hectare.

-- BERNAMA