28/09/05 PETALING JAYA,(Bernama) -- The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB)has forecast Malaysia's crude palm oil (CPO) production to surge by 42percent to 21.814 million tonnes by 2020 from the 15.434 million tonnesprojected for this year.

Its researcher, Ramli Abdullah, said that CPO production is projected tocontinue to rise in the future due to the increase in matured areas.

He said this at the Economic and Market Forecast Conference held inconjunction with International Palm Oil Congress (PIPOC) 2005 here today.

MPOB expects CPO production to be at 18.656 million tonnes for 2010, whileby 2015, production is expected to reach 20.147 million tonnes.

"We expect production to reach 15.434 million tonnes in 2005, asignificant increase by about 10.16 percent from 2004," he said.

"This is in fact not a peak year if we base it on the four-year cycle ofpalm oil production which will happen in 2006/2007 (the previous peak wasrecorded in 2003)," he said.

Ramli said that thus this growth is not due to the biological nature ofthe trees, but mainly due to the increase in matured areas as a result ofthe replanting programme introduced by the government in 2001/2002.

For 2006, CPO production is forecast at 15.9 million tonnes, an increaseof 3.2 percent, he added.

-- BERNAMA