Friday April 22, 2005 - Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd has launched its firstcommercial clonal oil palm, ABB1, which has the potential to enhanceproduction yields by 30% compared with current seedling materials.

The AAB1 clonal oil palm produced by Guthrie’s wholly-owned subsidiary,Guthrie Biotech Laboratory Sdn Bhd (GBLSB), gives the group an edge in thehighly competitive vegetable oil industry, GBLSB general manager DrHamidah Musa said.

"Yields obtained from trials of clonal palm planted in 1999 have showngreat potential for increased productivity, yielding high oil to brunchratio equivalent to up to nine tonnes of crude palm oil (CPO) perhectare," she said.

The new clonal palm oil was launched in Seremban on Wednesday by PrimeMinister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in conjunction with theMalaysian Unit Trust Week.

Dr Hamidah said that most successful commercial plantations producedapproximately six tonnes of CPO per hectare.

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi watering the clonal palm ABB1. With himare Negeri Sembilan MB Datuk Utama Mohamad Hasan (left) and Guthrie CEODatuk Abdul Wahab Maskan."Biotechnology is the only means to achieve maximum yield potential fromoil palm without area expansion. Guthrie started the intensive biotech andresearch and development (R&D) more than eight years ago and we have hadsuccess in developing an efficient and commercially-viable clonal palmproduction system," she said at the launching. Dr Hamidah said that thecompany was gearing up for semi-commercial planting of AAB1 clonalplantlets in the first quarter of 2006 and was focusing on a downstreamstrategy to exploit innovative technologies in this field.

On the company’s R&D activities, Dr Hamidah said that it came up with aproven technology on selection of palms that are amenable for tissueculture, which was a breakthrough for Guthrie and the oil palm industry asit could now identify productive palms to be tissue cultured andsubsequently generate high yielding palms.

"Another breakthrough is our medium formulation that successfully growsoil palm in the lab, which is a testament of our long-term commitment toR&D," she said.

Guthrie owns and operates 55 oil palm estates in Malaysia, totalling104,749 hectares and 14 palm oil mills, with the bulk of the oil palmestates located in Peninsular Malaysia while three oil palm estatestotalling 4,498 hectares are in Sabah.

In Indonesia, Guthrie owns and operates 53 plantation estates and 14 palmoil mills in Indonesia through PT Minamas Gemilang, PT AnugerahSumbermakmur and PT Guthrie Pecconina Indonesia. – Bernama