Berita Arkib

11/12/2007 (The Star Online), Kuching - Sarawak Plantation Bhd will buy 7,620ha plantation land in Mukah Division in central Sarawak for RM19.05mil from Lembaga Amanah Kebajikan Masjid Negeri Sarawak (LAKMNS).

10/12/2007 (Newindpress, India) - For Keralites, palm oil is a saviour turned villain. When coconut oil, the cooking oil of Kerala households, touched the then record price of Rs.70 for a kg in 1985, the State Government imported palm oil from Malaysia and distributed through ration shops at Rs 15 to Rs 20. It was a great relief for the low and middleincome groups as it saved a lot of their money.

10/12/2007 (Business Standard), New Delhi - Indian edible oil companies are said to be scouting around internationally for buying or leasing farms to grow oilseeds. This is an innovative way to deal with India’s perennial need for imports, and as a way of both reducing costs and ensuring regular supplies. India happens to be one of the world’s largest edible oil importers, and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. With the country’s laws on land holdings making it difficult, if not impossible, for business houses to acquire land for captive cultivation, companies have necessarily to look for land elsewhere. And if they can manage to do so in the countries from where they are already sourcing imports and where land is abundant and cheap, it helps them to cut costs as well. This should explain why some edible oil firms have either bought or are negotiating to acquire oil palm plantations in Indonesia, a key exporter of palm oil to India. The same motive of ensuring supplies at competitive prices has spurred the Solvent Extractors’ Association to visit the South American region and explore the possibility of producing other oilseeds, notably soyabean, either directly or through contract farming.

09/12/2007 (The Hindu) - It is common knowledge that farm subsidies and technology infusion combined to boost global agricultural production in recent years. Rapidly increasing output unmatched by demand growth resulted in farm goods prices staying depressed for a large part of the period between 1995 and 2005. Inventories of major commodities expanded. Existing high consumption levels and issues such as obesity resulted in consumption growth stagnating in developed countries, even as the Asian economic crisis and frequent outbreak of diseases added to demand-side problems.

29/11/2007 (Business Standard) - UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister when the Asean Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was being negotiated many months ago, alerting him to the need to be cautious, especially where India’s agriculture interests were concerned. Now, with the FTA nearly sewn up, and the Prime Minister promising some more “flexibility”, is another Sonia letter on its way? Commerce Secretary G K Pillai tells Sunil Jain and Rituparna Bhuyan that the fears are unfounded. Excerpts:

30/11/2007 (domain-b.com), Mumbai - Starting tomorrow, the government will reduce or altogether abolish tariffs on 555 products as part of a free-trade agreement with Singapore, information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi said.

03/12/2007 (Guardian Unlimited), Westwood - The yellow furnace in the basement of Richard Grady's Massachusetts home puts the retired engineer at the forefront of an environmental revolution. It's stoked by fuel derived from soybeans.

06/12/2007 (IC Wales) - EATING chips may be a guilty pleasure but it could also help you power your car and save the planet at the same time.

03/12/2007 (The Economic Times), New Delhi - The government hopes the import of edible oils in the current oil year would be about two lakh tons less than the quantity imported in 2006-07 on the back of increased domestic production.

06/12/2007 (Channel News Asia), Singapore - As Singapore seeks to build itself as a biodiesel hub, industry watchers say the next couple of years will be critical.

06/12/2007 (BangkokPost.com) – Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand warned that a recent decision by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) not to increase production is a signal that prices will remain high unless global demand declines.

06/12/2007 (Thai News Agency), Bangkok – In response to His Majesty King Bhumibol's advice on bio-diesel production, Thailand's Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Ministry is set to accelerate expanding oil plant growing areas to accommodate alternative fuel production.