01/08/2016 (NASDAQ) - Gabon says it expects at least 18,000 metric tons of additional palm oil this year as it pushes toward catching a 250,000 metric-tons-a-year target and become key African palm-oil exporter by 2025, a government- endorsed statement said Sunday.

Gabon's crude palm-oil production is expected to rise by 18,000 metric tons in 2016 from around 30,000 tons the year earlier, with both Olam International and the Belgian affiliate, a statement from Belgium's agribusiness, the Societe Belge d'Investissement pour l'Agriculture Tropical, or SIAT-Gabon, said this week.

SIAT-Gabon, which started to shore up the country's palm-oil sector into an industry, accounts for about 20,000 tons of the crop yearly.

But the country's real palm-oil output is expected in the next five years as Olam's plantations start producing this year with an initial 9,000 tons, according to figures from the company.

To meet its ambitions of becoming a key player in West Africa's palm-oil industry, Gabon's government is in talk with India's 3F Oil Palm Agrotech to inject about $200 million for another 40,000 hectare plantation in the sector.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba has as his government's strategy to diversify the economy from mainly crude-oil production to expanding agriculture, mining and information technology.

With about 225,000 barrels of crude oil daily, oil accounts for about 50% of Gabon's GDP, according to government figures.