MARKET DEVELOPMENT
CM Wants State To Be More Aggressive in Countering Claims Against Oil Palm Industry
CM Wants State To Be More Aggressive in Countering Claims Against Oil Palm Industry
26/06/2013 (The Star) - The state needs to play a more active role to counter allegations by foreign environmentalists that oil palm plantations on peat soil are destructive to the environment.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the state would need to play such role as the oil palm plantations had doubled in size from those of the 1970s.
The state currently has more than a million hectares under oil palm plantations.
It has planned to increase this by another one million hectares in the next 10 or 20 years, making it almost on par with Sabah, he said at the opening of a two-day 10th Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP) Seminar.
The seminar which was attended by industry players nationwide carried the theme "Confronting Management Challenges in the Oil Palm Industry".
Taib said the state needed to have a more clear cut strategy to face the problem hitting the palm oil industry which was infiltrated by irrelevant politics that could be quite damaging for the survival of the industry.
"Because of this situation, Sarawak needs to play an active part as we have more estates now. The growth of the palm oil industry in the state needs to be tackled in a concerted way by the stakeholders," he said.
The use of peat soil, he said, could result in 20% more production of palm oil.
From the states experience and also from studies, peat soil planted with oil palm showed that it produced much less greenhouse gas than when the soil was in its natural state, he pointed out.
"That is why the development of peat soil is more important for us in order to give the best income to the people in the respective areas," he said.
To the environmentalists, he urged them to come to the state to see for themselves whether oil palm plantations were destructive to the environment.
He said about 60% of the state land had been reserved as permanent forests and national parks, which very few countries had including those that strongly criticised the state.
New approaches, he said, also needed to be used to get the industry out of its current doldrum when the crude palm oil (CPO) price was at its lowest.
On the projected one million hectares more for oil palm, Taib said 180,000ha were already in the pipeline waiting for interested investors to take up on joint-venture basis with the NCR land owners and the Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA).
Taib would also like to see greater interaction between the various players in the industry in the state so as to establish better prospects for the industry.
"I hope the ISP can play a much greater role in the industry in a more organised fashion in facing the world market," he said.
Earlier, in his speech, ISP chairman Daud Amatzin said industry players in the state had the sovereign right to speak out against the critics who had tarnished the image of the industry in the state.
"It is our duty to tell them that it is unfair for them to continue to criticise us and subject us to certain trade policies," he said.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said the state would need to play such role as the oil palm plantations had doubled in size from those of the 1970s.
The state currently has more than a million hectares under oil palm plantations.
It has planned to increase this by another one million hectares in the next 10 or 20 years, making it almost on par with Sabah, he said at the opening of a two-day 10th Incorporated Society of Planters (ISP) Seminar.
The seminar which was attended by industry players nationwide carried the theme "Confronting Management Challenges in the Oil Palm Industry".
Taib said the state needed to have a more clear cut strategy to face the problem hitting the palm oil industry which was infiltrated by irrelevant politics that could be quite damaging for the survival of the industry.
"Because of this situation, Sarawak needs to play an active part as we have more estates now. The growth of the palm oil industry in the state needs to be tackled in a concerted way by the stakeholders," he said.
The use of peat soil, he said, could result in 20% more production of palm oil.
From the states experience and also from studies, peat soil planted with oil palm showed that it produced much less greenhouse gas than when the soil was in its natural state, he pointed out.
"That is why the development of peat soil is more important for us in order to give the best income to the people in the respective areas," he said.
To the environmentalists, he urged them to come to the state to see for themselves whether oil palm plantations were destructive to the environment.
He said about 60% of the state land had been reserved as permanent forests and national parks, which very few countries had including those that strongly criticised the state.
New approaches, he said, also needed to be used to get the industry out of its current doldrum when the crude palm oil (CPO) price was at its lowest.
On the projected one million hectares more for oil palm, Taib said 180,000ha were already in the pipeline waiting for interested investors to take up on joint-venture basis with the NCR land owners and the Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA).
Taib would also like to see greater interaction between the various players in the industry in the state so as to establish better prospects for the industry.
"I hope the ISP can play a much greater role in the industry in a more organised fashion in facing the world market," he said.
Earlier, in his speech, ISP chairman Daud Amatzin said industry players in the state had the sovereign right to speak out against the critics who had tarnished the image of the industry in the state.
"It is our duty to tell them that it is unfair for them to continue to criticise us and subject us to certain trade policies," he said.