21/09/05 PUTRAJAYA, (Bernama) -- Plantation Enterprises and CommoditiesMinister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui considered his recent visit to threeEuropean countries as a success with penetrating the German biodieselmarket as the highlight.

He said the economic and technical delegation headed by him during its11-day visit from Sept 7 to France, Italy and Germany succeeded inmarketing palm biodiesel to one of Europe's biggest transportation firmsbased in Berlin.

He added that the company, Prignitzer Eisenbahn (PE) Arriva, agreed to buypalm biodiesel from Malaysia as fuel for its trains.

Chin said as a start, Malaysia would be sending up to 100 tonnes of palmbiodiesel, produced using technology from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board(MPOB), to Arriva.

He said there is good potential for palm biodiesel in Germany which is themajor user of biodiesel in Europe.

He added that biodiesel is cheap in Germany because the industries aregetting subsidies from the government.

Also in the delegation were representatives from eight commodity-basedfirms and in Paris, the Malaysian Rubber Export Promotion Council (MPOPC)held a seminar on business opportunities with focus on the rubber gloveindustry.

The seminar was followed by a business matching session between Malaysianand French businessmen, and a similar event was also held in Milan, Italy.

"A very helpful and a very much looking forward business match-makingsessions," Chin said.

Members of the delegation visited factories making rubber-based componentsin Paris such as Hutchinson SA -- Centre de Recherche, Agense Francaise deSecurite des Produits de Sante (AFFSAPS) and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

They also visited the National Agency For New Technologies, Energy and TheEnvironment in Rome, a centre testing rubber-based products, includingseismic or high damping rubber bearings made in Malaysia.

Chin said the product was for use as a stabilising force in the case ofearthquakes.

-- BERNAMA