KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- Alami Vegetable Oil Products Sdn Bhd, amanufacturer of palm oil products, plans to set up a palm oil processingplants in Xian, China, with investments worth US$8.5 million.Chief executive officer, Mohamad Radwan Alami told Bernama recently thatthe company had teamed up with a Chinese party and the joint-venture waspending final approvals from the local authorities.Radwan was following the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation(Matrade) trade and investment mission led by Minister of InternationalTrade and Industry, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz to Xian, Chongqing andShanghai, from Sept 22 to 29, 2002.He said his company would be holding a 70 percent stake in thejoint-venture and the plant would have a production capacity of 180,000tonnes a year.Alami has been exporting about 4,000 tonnes of palm oil products to Chinaa year but Radwan said it was difficult to expand his business furtherwithout having a joint-venture.There are currently three vegetable oil plants in Xian, of which oneprocesses palm oil. This plant is a joint-venture between Malaysia,Singapore and Chinese investors.Radwan had also followed the Matrade investment mission to Beijing, Dalianand Shanghai last May where an agreement was signed between Alami andChina's Guangdong Kanghui Group Company for the processing anddistribution of palm oil products.However, the deal had yet to materialise as the Chinese party is stillwaiting for the processing licence.Under this deal, Alami would be investing between US$800,000 to US$1.0million to modify an existing soya bean crusher plant in Wuhan into arefinery to process palm oil.He said the plant had not been running for three years and had been usedas a distribution centre with a storage capacity of 600,000 tonnes.Radwan has been involved in the palm oil business for the past 13 yearsand the company has eight vegetable oil plants in Africa, Sri Lanka aswell as some Asean countries.Alami also exports palm oil products to the Middle East and has beeninvolved in the "Oil for Food Programme" by exporting to Iraq since1997.-- BERNAMA