18/07/2011 (Reuters) -  New York-based agricultural company Herakles Farms will develop some 60,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Cameroon's south-west region, project manager Delilah Rothenberg told Reuters in an interview.

"We are developing approximately 60,000 hectares of oil palm plantation, and expect the total capital costs to be about $350 million, to be invested over several years," she said of the result of a land lease deal signed with the government.

Rothenberg did not give a start date for the project, adding the company was in initial nursery development involving 115,000 seedlings.

Land lease deals are becoming prevalent in Africa as developed markets rush to secure food supplies, but have been criticised as depriving often poor countries of the means to produce food for their own populations.

However, Rothenberg said Herakles would first aim to supply regional markets in west and central Africa before exporting the remainder.

She added Herakles was adhering to industry standards on sustainability and that the project would create some 9,000 local jobs.