29/09/04 - NEW Britain Palm Oil Limited has set January as its date to enter and develop oil palm in the Solomon Islands.
The company intends to take over the Solomon Islands Plantations Limited and change the name when they take over the plantation located on the Guadalcanal Islands of the country.
But any takeover outcome will depend on final approval from the Government of the Solomon Islands and other necessary finalisations of documents.However, that proviso was watered down as oil palm industry sources said the expansion to Solomon Islands would need to be the preferred option as land was becoming a problem in the West New Britain Province where much ofthe land was now customarily owned. And that will not be the end of the expansion plans of the Malaysia-based Kulim Group of Companies, saysmanaging director Ahamad Mohamad.
Kulim Group is the majority shareholder in NBPOL after the decision by former owners Harrison and Crosfield to offload its plantations and thedecision by the Government of PNG toprivatise.He told the second Kulim conference in Mosa, West New Britain yesterdaythat NBPOL had been one of the success stories of the group.
Mr Mohamad said Kulim's expansion would not only be seen in Papua New Guinea-based NBPOL expanding to the Solomon Islands but the group also intended to expand its plantations in both Malaysia and Indonesia.
He said they would plant up to 10,000 hectares of palm oil every year butthen the company would need the support of everyone on the group.
We have planted the seeds of sustainability in the corporate world, Mr Mohamad said.
We will continue to add value to the palm-oil industry and our aim now isto get a packet of PNG-made palm oil into the PNG market.He said with the expansion of NBPOL into the Solomon Islands the Kulim Group of Companies expects to double its current planted area size in2007.