Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli Ghazali with therepresentatives of Perak Felcra settlers at the ceremony to presentdividends amounting to RM44.9 million to Felcra settlers in Perak,Saturday. Pix:Dusa Abas

15/10/05 BANDAR SERI ISKANDAR, (Bernama) -- Felcra Bhd will build an oilpalm refinery factory costing RM100 million, its first in the country, inLumut, Perak, in three months' time.

Its chairman Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin said Felcra would begin constructionof the factory early next year after receiving approval for thedevelopment plans and operations.

"We have bought the 20-acre land in Lumut for over RM6 million. Our aim isto produce 2,000 tonnes daily, with supplies from Felcra crude palm oilfactories and also from government agencies engaged in oil palm," he toldreporters here.

Earlier, he attended a ceremony to present dividends amounting to RM44.9million to Felcra settlers in Perak at Universiti Teknologi Petronas nearhere.

Hamzah said the factory, considered a major project by Felcra, is expectedto be completed in 18 months.

The factory, he said, will produce refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD)oil, and could be expanded for biodiesel production if Felcra decided toventure into it.

According to him, Felcra will not face problems in getting raw materialsfor the factory as it has 38,000 acres of oil palm plantations in Perakand only 30 percent was required from other crude palm oil factories.

Hamzah also said that Felcra was now in the process of discussing withseveral entrepreneurs from the Middle East keen to invest in setting upfactories to process by-products from palm oil such as fats, shorteningsand soaps.

Asked why they were keen to invest, he said up to now they have beenbuying the products from Malaysia and they felt it was better to investhere for the products.

He added that the Malaysian palm oil refining technology has been able todeliver high quality output acknowledged at international level.

-- BERNAMA