24/08/05 DAVAO CITY, (Asia Pulse) - To be self-sufficient in palm oilsupply, the country needs to develop 12,000 to 18,000 more hectares ofpalm oil plantations a year, Department of Agriculture (DA) recent datashowed.

The additional plantations would also enable the country to address thecurrent shortfall of about 40,000 metric tons (MT) or 42.5 per cent in thelocal market with consumption to increase by an average rate of 2.18 percent annually.

DA has identified Mindanao to have enough areas for expansion. TheseMindanao areas include regions IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, and Autonomous Regionfor Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The largest oil plantation in the country is found in Mindanao's regionXIII at 53 per cent; followed by Region XII -27 per cent; and Region VII-16 per cent.

The availability of potential oil palm plantations in Mindanao pushed DAto include palm oil as one of the nine priority commodities in Mindanao,which include banana, coconut, coffee, mango, poultry, rubber, seaweedsand tilapia.

The demand for palm oil is growing at around 2.18 per cent per year whileproduction is decreasing because of senescent trees, DA said, adding thatif no new areas will be planted, importation will grow to 220,000 MT in2010.

It said there is an increasing demand of palm oil because it is cheaperthan coconut oil and can be reused several times and is generallypreferred by the institutional markets.

Palm oil imports in 2004 was already 98,026 MT valued at US$49.72 million,up by more than five times from only 15,981 MT in 2003 valued at US$16.96million.

(PNA)