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COLOMBIA is seeking Malaysia’s aid to nurture a strong palm oil industryin the Latin American nation as it has large agricultural land for cashcrop cultivation.A high-level discussion is expected to be initiated soon when ColombianForeign Minister Carolina Barco meets Primary Industries Minister DatukSeri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.Colombian Ambassador to Malaysia Fernando Marin Valencia told BusinessTimes that Barco plans to meet Dr Lim during the 13th Non-Aligned Movement(NAM) Summit in Kuala Lumpur.“Malaysia has a lot of expertise, especially in palm oil and naturalrubber.“We are interested in establishing an agreement with Malaysia to get KualaLumpur’s technical support in this area as well as getting Malaysianplantation companies to invest in Colombia,” he said in a recent interviewin Kuala Lumpur.Barco will lead the Colombian delegation to the summit which kicks offwith senior officials meeting today Valencia said he is currently talkingto a few Malaysian plantations companies to invest in palm oil sector inColombia.“Colombia is suitable for palm oil plantations as the country has the sameweather conditions as Malaysia. “We also have bigger areas of land for thecultivation of commercial crops like oil palm and rubber,” he said.He noted that Malaysia, with only about 4 million ha of oil palmplantation, produces more than 55 per cent of world’s palm oil supply.He said the export potential for Malaysian companies is very promising ifthey invest in oil palm plantations in Colombia as palm oil from Colombiacan be exported to the US and Europe.“Malaysia and Colombia can establish a joint venture to plant oil palm inColombia and explore the markets in the US and Europe as Colombia iscloser to the US and not far from Europe,” he said.Malaysian investment in the Colombia’s oil palm sector will be furtherjustified as the expanding economies of China and India will result ingreater demand for palm oil.He said as the combined population of China and India represents 40 percent of the world’s population, Malaysian companies would benefit greatlyif they can supply more palm oil to these countries in the future.Colombia’s export to Malaysia is about US$12 billion to US$13 billion(US$1 = RM3.80), while Malaysia’s export stood at US$100 billion.Currently, Colombia’s global exports are petroleum, coffee, coal, bananasand flowers like roses and orchids.

2/24/2003 (Financial Express) -There is likelihood of a 10 per cent dutycut on crude palm oil (CPO) to be announced by Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee during his Malaysian visit beginning on Saturday. The duty-cut isexpected in the face of mounting pressure from Malaysia and domesticvanaspati industry which uses CPO as its principal raw material.According to official sources, "Up to 10 per cent cut in the customs dutyon CPO from the present 65 per cent is under active consideration and ifcleared a formal announcement is expected during Vajpayee's Kualalumpurvisit". However sources say that, "Customs duty on other oils are likelyto be left untouched."The matter has been deliberated upon with Malaysia's primary industryminister Lin Keng Yaik on his visit to India this week. Mr Yaik heldclosed door meetings with several Indian ministers including food ministerSharad Yadav and finance minister Jaswant Singh on the issue."If the duty cut is not announced now, there is a chance of theannouncement being made in the forthcoming Union Budget," said sources.CPO is the single largest imported oil whose purchase has risen to 18.91lakh tonne in the last season from 14.01 lakh tonne in 2000-01. Thedomestic edible oil imports could rise to an all time high of 55 lakhtonne or even more as domestic oilseeds output is pegged to fall to thelowest level in more than 13 years at 154 lakh tonne in 2002-03.

25 Feb, 2003 (Business Times) - MALAYSIA aims to export more crude palmoil (CPO) rather than refined palm oil to India to compete with fastemerging rival Indonesia.

20 Feb. 2003 (Business Times) - THE Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA)will hold a two-day seminar beginning next Monday on Good AgriculturalPractice and Food Safety Management in the palm oil industry.

2/25/2003 (New Straits Times Malaysia) - THIS June, palm oil andeverything associated with its production, can be bought and sold on theInternet when the first transactions take place onhttp://www.oilpalmworld.com, the country's first comprehensive e-commerceportal for an entire industry. The Malaysian-made portal will become aone-stop B2B exchange for all business transactions in the palm oilindustry in Malaysia and overseas. The portal links all players in thepalm oil supply chain, and addresses time-to-market pressure the industryconstantly faces.It is expected to speed up business, raise awareness, increasetransparency, lower costs and be the device used by the industry tointelligently predict global market trends of Malaysia's most profitablecommodity.Among its highlights is that it is likely to diversify the buyer basedrawing smaller buyers around the globe who can be supported by anaggregation method that lumps them together, making them attractive tosellers.Eventually, this is expected to make palm oil prices more competitive andprevent any cartel behaviour among the world's handful of big buyers, nowprevalent in commodities.The web-enabled, browser-based portal can be used by the smallest ofcompanies by simply logging in with a user ID. The site will be up-and-running late March.Companies expected to use the portal are plantation houses, smallholders,refiners, manufacturers, shippers and suppliers of all raw materials andequipment used by producers and users of palm oil.Tomorrow, a soft launch of http://www.oilpalmworld.com will be held at theevening programme of Malaysian Palm Oil Association's seminar on bestpractices and food safety held at the JW Marriot Hotel at Putrajaya."The portal is a one-stop exchange to handle all commerce functions of thepalm oil industry, a virtual marketplace," says K. John Kuruvilla,managing director of Cosville Holdings Sdn Bhd, a private investmentholding company and majority shareholder of Oilpalmworld Sdn Bhd.Its IT partner is Virinchi Integrated Solutions Sdn Bhd, a B2B solutionsprovider for net markets, private exchanges and supply chains.The portal's most obvious feature is that it gathers buyers and sellersunder one roof."Buyers and sellers are scattered globally, connecting them in thephysical world has always been difficult," says Kuruvilla, "but it'seasily done on the Internet. On this portal, smaller buyers and sellerswill find business quickly." As more banking services go online, thebanking related to the oil palm industry can be done on the portal aswell.The e-commerce functions of portal include trading of palm oil and oilpalm products, procuring of raw materials and equipment (like fertilisersand machines), recruitment and chartering vessels. It has functions forauctions, bids and tenders and will be an on-line catalogue for theindustry.Also possible are private exchanges between companies which need privacyfor trade strategies. All transactions are supported by secure softwareand bound by Malaysian law. The portal acts as an enabler of thosetransactions.For the industry, there will be current industry news provided by newsagencies, price watch features, advertising and classifieds. Futurecontent providers include the Malaysia Palm Oil Association, Palm OilRefiners Association of Malaysia and Malaysia Palm Oil Board which havesupported the portal's initiative."The portal also promotes the sustainability of the oil palm cultivation,plus the health and nutritional benefits of palm oil." The project has thesupport of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, theNational Information Technology Council and MIMOS which have funded itthrough the Demonstrator Application Grant Scheme.For industry executives, time savings will be its most attractive feature."Conventionally, transactions are known to take as long as three weeks,"says Kuruvilla. "On an electronic portal, this can be reduced to a day."The portal will remove some layers of costs and reduce dependence onmiddlemen.The portal's revenue sources will come from membership subscription ofwhich there will be many categories based on volumes and scope of use,advertisements and IT packages designed for the palm oil industry.The portal falls in line with the digital revolution now underway in theoil palm industry. Larger palm oil producers began engaging IT in the1980s, mostly for estate operations."We can expect greater connectivity for Malaysian plantations abroad,"says Kuruvilla. Malaysian companies have invested substantially to expandplantation operations overseas, particularly in Indonesia, andcollectively control a landbank of some one million hectares. Most of thisland is already planted or is being planted with oil palms.Although cultivation has moved abroad, marketing of produce is almostexclusively executed in their Malaysian headquarters. These companies arelikely to find an electronic marketplace useful for better co-ordinationof production and marketing.Exports of oil palm products include palm oil, palm kernel oil, palmkernel cake, oleochemicals and finished products. Major buyers ofMalaysian palm oil are India, the EU, China and Pakistan. Numerous smallerbuyers are expected to find it easier to access information through theportal.In 2001, palm oil earnings exceeded RM14.1 billion from exports. Duringthe 1997-1998 financial crisis, palm oil exports exceeded RM22.5 billion,cushioning the higher import bill and helped the Malaysian economy stayrelatively calm even as other Asian nations struggled with their financialstability.Publication: New Straits Times (Malaysia)

NEW DELHI, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- The mission of Primary Industries MinisterDatuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik to India appears to be yielding positiveresults with the Indian Government promising to examine high import dutiesimposed by it on refined and crude palm oil and also the differentialbetween the two.The assurances were held out by the ministers of the two ministriesconcerned, Agriculture Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, and Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution Minister, Mr Sharad Yadav, with whom Dr Lim hadmeetings during his stay in Delhi before leaving for Bangladesh.The Malaysian Minister was at great pains to explain to the ministers thatwith global production of oilseeds going down and the rising demand, theprices of edible oils were bound to go up, seriously affecting theinterests of the consumers.Dr Lim wanted the Indian government to bring down the duty in the interestof the consumers, who had already been seriously affected.Besides the two ministers, Dr Lim also met the minister for Commerce andIndustry, Mr Arun Jaitly, who would be conveying the request for loweringduties on palm oil to the ministries concerned.With Budget to be presented in a week's time, the Indian Government coulddo no more than promise to have the matter examined. However, mostobservers of the economic scene have suggested a populist budget withState elections taking place and elections to Parliament not far away.In such a scenario, no government could ignore the interests of theconsumers, for whom the Malaysian Minister has been pleading.However, it is difficult to forecast what would be the shape of things tocome with the perennial need of the government to raise revenues. Theprices of edible oils have been rising even in the oilseed producingStates.Dr Lim has said he would be considering to adopt some mechanism by whichthe price of crude palm oil for the top oilseed producing State of Gujaratcould be subsidised.Reports from the adjoining State of Andhra Pradesh have said that edibleoil prices in the state had gone up to record levels.Dr Lim said Malaysia would be willing to export crude palm oil without anyduties if an understanding could be arrived at for Malaysia'sparticipation in crude palm oil refining in India.The Commerce Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley suggested that joint venture forrefining units could be set up in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) inIndia which would provide the advantage of duty-free import of crude palmoil for export of refined palm oil.Dr Lim meanwhile said he would look into allegations of export of refinedolein with one per cent free fatty acids (FFA), imported as crude palmolein and sold in India as refined palm oil, if the Indian governmentraises the issue.Talking to newsmen later he said: "The specifications were in order andcontended that it was due to duty differential between refined and crudepalm oil that traders were resorting to the practise of mixing FFA torefined olein."Traders were importing the commodity as crude palm oil, which attractedlower duty of 65 per cent against 92.4 per cent in the case of refinedpalm oil, resulting in duty leakage for the Indian Government.The Indian Government, however, had so far not raised the issue with theMalaysian Government. -- BERNAMA

2/18/2003 (Financial Express) - The consumer affairs ministry has made acase for reduction of customs duty on crude and refined edible oil in viewof shortfall in production of oilseeds on account of drought during theyear. According to sources, the ministry, in communication to the financeministry, said that reduction of duty was necessary to keep the prices ofedible oil under control in the domestic market. As per the secondadvanced estimate of crop production released by the agriculture ministry,the oilseeds output was badly hit as a result of drought.According to estimates, the oilseeds production in 2002-03 is estimated tofall by almost 25 per cent to 15.44 million tonne, which is the lowestsince `pre-technology mission' of 12.65 million tonne in 1987-88. Besides,the ministry has also suggested reduction of duty on the import ofoilseeds, which is currently at 30 per cent. This will help refineriescontinue crushing operations. Currently the duty on import of edible oilvaries from 45 per cent on soy oil to 65 per cent on crude palm oil (CPO)and 92.4 per cent on RBD palmolein.The sources in the ministry further added that duty reduction was alsoimportant to prevent instability in prices that occur due to a sharp risein prices in the international market that is a frequent occurrance. Thereis a distinct possibility of sharp price rise in the coming year due to adrop in production of soyabean in the US.Though the import of refined oil in the last year has nearly come to astandstill due to high import duty in the last budget, there is asuggestion to reduce the customs duty on refined oils specially for thesunflower oils and RBD Palmolein oil. According to the latest availabledata, total import of edible oil during the first quarter of the oil year(November 2002 to January 2003) was up by five per cent to 924,474 tonneas compared to 882,138 tonne for the same period of last year. The importof edible oils is reported at 288,496 tonne in January 2003 as comparedwith 272,674 tonne in January 2002. In the total imports palm oil importrepresents 81 per cent.

NEW DELHI, Feb 18 (Bernama) -- Malaysia aims to secure parity in importduty imposed by India between that of crude palm oil (CPO) and soybeanoil.The parity could be achieved by reducing duty on CPO. India's duty on CPOand soybean oil are 65 percent and 45 percent, respectively.

2/18/2003 (Delta Farm Press) - SOYBEAN OIL is the main ingredient in anew, all-natural skin and hair care product formulated to block the sun'sultraviolet light. The product, SoyScreen, is the invention of Joe Laszloand Dave Compton, Agricultural Research Service chemists in Peoria, Ill.,who are exploring new, value-added uses for commodities, especially soyoil.Soy oil itself doesn't offer sun protection, so the researchers figuredout how to chemically connect it to ferulic acid, an antioxidant abundantin oat bran and other natural sources that absorbs ultraviolet (UV) light.Their approach also makes ferulic acid more lipid-like, so it doesn'tdissolve in water, such as during a swim.SoyScreen is also environmentally benign, and the method for making it --biocatalysis -- uses recyclable enzymes instead of harsh solvents, notesLaszlo, at ARS' National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research inPeoria.In studies there, the scientists ran Sun Protection Factor tests comparingSoyScreen to four commercial sunscreens: oxybenzone, dioxybenzone, octylmethoxycinnamate and padimate-O. The latter two scored highest for UVBabsorbency at wavelengths of 290-320 nanometers, a range that can causeshort-term exposure problems, such as sunburn from a day on the beach.SoyScreen, however, offered the best overall protection against both UVBand UVA, another type of sunlight radiation that can cause long-termexposure problems, such as skin cancer.ARS, which patented SoyScreen on behalf of USDA, is negotiating anexclusive license with a company.

TOKYO, Feb 18 (Bernama) -- The Informal Mini Ministerial Meeting on WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) Issues held here over the weekend failed tonarrow a huge gap over the controversial farm trade issue and cheaperdrugs for poor countries, thus further clouding the prospect of meeting aself-imposed March 31 deadline.Further negotiations are expected to take place in Geneva, but the Tokyotalks is the last ministerial one before the March deadline.

KARACHI, Feb 10 Asia Pulse - Federal Industries Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoisaid the government wanted to reduce the import bill of edible oil byincreasing the cultivation of palm oil trees in Pakistan.He said that Pakistan is currently spending about Rs24 billion (US$413.4million) annually on the import of edible oil including palm oil, soybean,and sunflower oil in order to meet domestic demand.He was speaking at the national conference on palm oil at a local hotel."The local cultivation of palm oil trees will give a better price to ourgrowers as well as provide a raw material for our industry withoutspending foreign exchange," he added.Later, talking to reporters, Jatoi said the government wanted to encourageinvestment and industrialization in the country by reducing tariffs.

PANTAI REMIS, Jan 27 (Bernama) -- Primary Industries Minister, Datuk SeriDr Lim Keng Yaik on Monday said that the high price of palm oil shouldencourage plantation companies to embark on replanting of oil palm treesas the price could fetch RM2,000 per tonne in future.Lim said that at the moment, he was not happy with the slow replantingexercise and warned the plantation companies and smallholders the dangerof depending on old and unproductive trees.He said when the Government offered incentives of RM1,000 per hectare forreplanting between end of 2001 and July, 2002, a total of 170,000 hectaresof oil palm trees, aged some 25 years, had been felled and replantednationwide.Lim said replanting had pushed up the price of palm oil in the globalmarket to about RM1,600 per tonne now and it could even achieve theRM2,000 mark if the process was continued."But I am not happy with the progress now...how long you want to extractfrom 25 old trees. Plantations should get clones with higher yield so thatwe can stay ahead of our competitor, Indonesia in terms of cost," he saidafter attending a temple ceremony in Ladang UIE near here.He said the ministry was monitoring the situation but had not decidedwhether to reintroduce the incentive scheme for replanting although somefunds were still available.The minister said big plantation companies and smallholders should emulatethe success of Teluk Intan-based United Plantations Bhd (UP) in optimisingtheir production, minimise production costs and taking care the welfare ofits workers.He said UP's production cost was about RM500 to RM520 per hectare and forother firms between RM650 and RM700 and in Felda as high as RM900."They should also not just look at bank accounts when the price is highbut instead look after the welfare of workers. A satisfied worker is ahighly productive worker," he added.Lim also said he would be visiting India, Myanmar and Bangladesh from Feb17 to explore new market for palm oil, source for foreign workers andnegotiate with the Indian Government to reduce the import tariff on palmoil.He said at the moment there was discrimination against palm oil as importduty for crude palm oil and process palm oil stood at 65 percent and 85percent respectively compared to soya's 45 percent and 50 percent only."They want to look after their local farmers but oil palm is limited toKerala only. Because of the difference in tariff rates, our palm oil isabout US$90 higher than soya oil in the Indian market," he added.Besides the discrimination in tariff, Malaysia is also facing competitionfrom Indonesia as the neighbouring country was selling palm oil at US$10to US$20 cheaper to India and shipping the product faster as it is nearer,he added.He said India should give priority to Malaysia as the country had beengiven the contract to build the northern section of the double trackrailway project between Ipoh and Padang Besar.-- BERNAMA