The Sun Daily - May 06 2:59 AM JERTIH: The Federal Land DevelopmentAuthority (Felda) plans to produce biomass as an alternative to diesel,and slash its operating expenditure that has been pushed up by a higherdiesel price.

Felda chairman Tan Sri Dr Yusof Noor said today Felda Holdings would setup a special unit to produce the biomass from oil palm fronds, fruitbunches and fruits.

"With the diesel price hike, Felda will bear a higher operating cost as wehave to use the fuel to run more than 200 factories and 500 trucksnationwide," he told reporters after opening the Besut Division PuteriUmno meeting at the Besut Umno Building here.

The diesel price went up by 20 sen a litre to 108.1 sen from Friday.

Yusof said Felda Holdings had conducted research on the new fuel in linewith the government's policy for the agency to use oil palm waste toproduce a substitute energy for diesel.

"I am confident that the biomass will help reduce Felda's operating costand also become a new source of revenue for the organisation when thebiomass is eventually marketed to diesel-using industries," he said.