Sabah Softwoods Preparing New Masterplan To Optimise Resources
29/03/2010 (Bernama), Tawau - Sabah Softwoods Bhd, a plantation subsidiary of state government agency Innoprise Corporation, is drawing up a new five-year plan to optimise the use of its resources.
Chief Executive Officer Mohd Hattah Jaafar said said the old masterplan would expire soon.
"For timber plantation, in terms of productivity, our target is 280 cubic metres per hectare for all three timber species we are planting. Our current achievement is 140 cubic metres per hectare."
Among the strategies were the use of superior planting materials and good agriculture practice, he told reporters after the company's annual dinner here.
On oil palm, Hattah said Sabah Softwoods hoped to produce 31.5 metric tonnes of fruit per hectare for all its mature plantation areas covering 26,000 hectares by 2015.
Last year, oil palm contributed more than 90 per cent to the company's profit of RM55 million and by 2015, Sabah Softwoods expected timber plantation to contribute 30 per cent, he said.
The company's long term target was for timber and oil palm plantations to contribute 50 per cent each, he added.
"Timber, if managed, processed and marketed properly, the potential profit is on par with oil palm. This is what we want to prove. Based on the data that we have, we can achieve this," he said.
Hattah said that if the company could carry out all it had planned, barring unforeseen circumstances, Sabah Softwoods would perform much better compared to last year.
"Sabah Softwoods' profit will not fall below RM100 million by 2011, InsyaAllah. Provided that the price of crude palm oil is at the RM1,800-level, Sabah Softwoods will record a profit of above RM100 million," he said.
Hattah also said the company had built a RM60 million oil palm mill with a processing capacity of 45 metric tonnes per hour and it was expected to start full operation next month.
The mill in Kapilit which could increase its capacity to 90 metric tonnes per hour, was the first of its kind in Sabah and second in Malaysia that met all licensing requirements of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, he said.