May 10 - SEJATI Oil Palm Feed Sdn Bhd submitted proposals to BankIndustri dan Teknologi Malaysia Bhd and Bank Pertanian Pertanian Malaysiato help fund its four factories, said its managing director, Zainal Ahmad."The proposal was made about two months ago. We are seeking about RM18million," said Zainal in an interview with Mail Money.

"We require the capital to expand our present set-up and also to open newfactories, which should help develop further our country’s agriculturesector," said Zainal.

He said that Sejati had not approached any of the commercial banks yet, asit is waiting for feedback from the two banks.

"They may take between three and four months to give us an answer," saidZainal.

Part of the money is to be used to help boost Sejati’s factory output.

For example, Sejati’s plant in Pulau Carey is producing 500 tonne oil palmfronds (OPF) per day but the company wants to increase it to about 1,500tonne OPF a day.

Oil palm fronds is a way of utilising oil palm residues which may help togenerate extra income for the plantation sector. At the same time, it canhelp solve the waste management problems among oil palm mills in thecountry.

He said the company is using between RM3 million and RM4 million of itsinternal funds to keep the operations on the go.

"It’s a bit difficult because costs have gone up. For example, dieselprice has gone up. The commodity is used to run most of our coremachinery," said Zainal.

He added that Sejati is in a ’Catch 22’ situation as there is demand forits products from foreign countries but the company can’t expand fastenough to meet the demand due to constraints to its production capacity.