Monday, July 8, 2002 - PALM oil producing region Sandakan, on the eastcoast of Sabah, is now able to cater for rapid expansion of oil palmplantations and subsequent increase in production following the recentcompletion of the new and better capacity mill, the Sepagaya palm oilmill.The mill, owned by the state’s leading oil palm-based Sawit Group, has amilling capacity of 45 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per hour.It replaces the Suan Lamba mill, which has a smaller operating capacity of20 tonnes per hour.In a statement on Saturday, Sawit Group said the Suan Lamba mill hasceased its operations and all palm oil milling have been taken over bySepagaya mill, effectively making it the sole milling operator in theSandakan region.“The opening of this mill coincides with Sawit Group’s business expansionprogramme for future requirement in crop processing,’’ it said.Sepagaya mill will be capable of milling up to 216,000 tonnes of FFB perannum. The capacity can be expanded to 90 tonnes per hour or 432,000tonnes annually to cater for increase in crop production in the future.Sawit Group is expected to process up to 1.4 million tonnes of FFB thisyear.“With the Sepagaya Mill, oil palm growers within the district also standto reap the benefits of the Sawit Group’s expanding milling activities asfair prices are offered for the harvest coupled with improved facilities,”Sawit said. – Bernama(The informations and opinions expressed in this article represent theviews of the author only. They should not be seen as necessarilyreflecting the views of Palm News)