27/09/2010 (Bernama), Kota Kinabalu - The Wakuba oil palm ramet (cloned seedling) brand was launched by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok on Monday.

The seedling has been touted to transfom the plantation sector with its promise of higher yields.

The ramet is a result of a five-year partnership between TSH Resources Bhd Subsidiary, TSH Biotech Sdn Bhd, and The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) through a tissue culture laboratory in Tawau, where the company conducts research and development using MPOB's offer of knowledge on high yielding cloned shoots in the market.

Named after the laboratory located in Wakuba Gading,the Wakuba ramet promises oil yield of up to 10 tonnes per hectare which is more than a two-fold rise compared to Malaysia's average of 4.5 tonnes per hectare.

The launching took place at the 2010 National seminar on Palm Oil Milling, Refining, Environment and Quality (POMREQ) here today, where a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was also inked between TSH Resources and MPOB.

The deal is to extend technical collaboration to further improve efficiency and quality of ramets produced at the laboratory.

MPOB was represented by its Director-General Datuk Dr. Mohd Basri Wahid while TSH Resources by its chairman Datuk Dr Kelvin Tan for signing.

Tan said the collabration between TSH and MPOB as a private-[ublic sector synergy was aimed at technology transfer from MPOB to produce an supply high quality ramets developed through selection of elite palms commercial reproduction.

The company has invested RM25 million in the laboratory which is expected to produce 1.5 million ramets by 2015 compared to 500,000 this year, Tan said in a statement issued at the event.

Based on MPOB statistics, 1.1 million hectares of the 1.4 million hectares planted with oil palm in Sabah are now "mature", indicating potential for high yield Wakuba clones to replace ageing palms.

"This collabration will allow superior oil palm materials to be available especially to smallholder