Business Times
Tuesday, December 16, 2008,

By Julia Chan and Ooi Tee Ching
Sabah’s oil palm planters are faced with poorly maintained roads and congested ports despite paying high taxes to the state for years.

The government imposes a 7.5 per cent sales tax on plantation companies and it collected RM580 million in 2006. In fact, this is Sabah’s biggest source of income.

The state is Malaysia’s biggest palm oil-producing state, squeezing out 5.5 million tonnes or a third of Malaysia’s crude palm oil (CPO) output.

However, poor infrastructure affects plantation companies as it could slow the process of taking the fruits to refiners, for instance.

A planter owning sizeable estates of more than 50,000ha in Lahad Datu said industry players have not seen much improvement to the infrastructure.
“The road leading to Lahad Datu port is still not tarred. Every time it rains, the road becomes very soggy and soft, and our…

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Monday, 15 December 2008
ZAMPALM, a newly created subsidiary of Zambeef Products, has invested K7.5 billion on its palm oil plantation in Mpika part of its US$41 million total investment earmarked for palm oil production which would include setting up a processing mill.

Speaking at the launch of Zampalm at Pamodzi Hotel on December 10, Zambeef chairman Jacob Mwanza said the company had already invested heavily in planting palm oil seedlings at the 20,000-hectare farm in Mpika.

Dr Mwanza said Zampalm was eyeing the abundant local and regional markets, where there were no palm oil processing industries but depended on imports from Brazil, Malaysia and Thailand.

He said the palm oil production and processing project would lead to the expansion of related industries including stock feed production, which would help to increase livestock production in the country.

He said within five years, Zampalm would have set…

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London, (ANTARA News) - Director General for American and European Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, Retno LP Marsudi, said the government appreciated international efforts to make environmental issues the mainstream in the economic policies of the countries in the world.

“The diplomat made the statement during a workshop entitled Promoting Sustainable Palm Oil Production held by the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin, Germany, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture,” first secretary at the Indonesian Embassy in Berlin, Agus Priono, said here Sunday.

The workshop was participated in by 60 people from several institutions such as government institutions, the private sector, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), entrepreneurs and the press.

On the occasion, Priono said, Retno LP Marsudi also urged all countries to respect the “right to development” of every nation, which had been recognized internationally.

According to Retno, Indonesia had a strong commitment to the environment. This has been…

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By Niluksi Koswanage
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Reuters) - India, the world’s No. 2 vegetable oils buyer, will buy less palm oil from December due to a better winter soybean crop as well as attractive rival sunoil and soyoil prices, a leading trader said on Monday.
India will import 450,000 tonnes of palm products, roughly 18 percent lower than in November, in part due to traders having stockpiled enough ahead of an anticipated import duty tax, said Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive of Sunvin Group, a leading vegetable oil trading firm.

Analysts and industry watchers expect India to slap up to a 20 percent tax on palm oil imports in a bid to shore up domestic oilseed prices and please farmers ahead of next year’s general elections.

“There is a slowdown (in palm oil) because sunoil and soyoil is becoming quite attractive,” Bajoria told Reuters by phone from Mumbai.

“Just…

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KOTA KINABALU, MALAYSIA: Oil palm mills operating at an oil extraction rate of 18% and below need to improve their performance through stringent fresh fruit bunches grading and adopting new technology.

In stating this Monday (15 dec), Plantation Industries and Commodoties Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said the oil palm industry needed to make concerted efforts, including improving agricultural practices, in order to push yields and productivity to new heights.

“We cannot be complacent as the competitive edge, which is the driving force behind the production and market expansion of palm oil, will continue to be a vital factor for the future development of the industry,” he said.

“Plantation companies should embark further on adopting good agricultural practices and replanting of unproductive oil palm trees with superior planting materials,” Chin said.

“And they should also carry out preparation of land with mechanisation in mind in order to reduce…

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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil producer Kuala Lumpur Kepong is looking for opportunities to buy cheap plantations in the region as crude palm oil prices tumbled nearly two-thirds from a March peak on demand worries, a local newspaper reported on Monday.

“KLK’s expansion plans in plantations would continue with a slight change in strategy,” said KLK plantation director Roy Lim.

“We will be more choosy. We pay attention only to the good and strategic green fields,” Lim was quoted by the Edge Financial Daily as saying.

The company would also look for investment opportunities in brown fields, or planted land, if they offer good values, said executive.

But Lim said he does not expect the global financial crisis to lead to large scale consolidations in the plantation industry.

“There’s no need to consolidate for financial reasons,” he said, adding that palm oil firms are expanding for…

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ROSARIO, Agusan del Sur, Dec. 14 — Barangay Libuac officials headed by Barangay Captain Cesar Fuentes, Sr. and Rosario Municipal Health Office, headed by Dr. Rebecca Aquino, cleared Filipinas Palm Oil Plantations Inc. of any wrongdoings particularly on charges of pollution raised by NGEI Multi-Purpose Cooperative Inc.
Earlier, officials of said cooperative, headed by Hernancito Ronquillo, claimed 17 of its members have fallen ill due to chemcial spray which turned out to be a herbicide to control growth of grasses in the oil palm plantation.

Barangay Libuac health worker Dulsora Exdiaure claimed the allegations of former plantation worker Reynaldo Mendez that he got his liver cancer from too much exposure to herbicides was not true after all, saying Mendez was never a sprayer but an ordinary worker.

A herbecide sprayer herself for 17 years, Exdiaure claimed she is healthy as ever and even showed her medical certificate issued…

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Business Times
Monday - December 15, 2008
by Ooi Tee Ching
http://www.mpoc.org.my/images/news/nws812151958.jpg

You can always tell a planter’s hands. They are big, calloused, wrinkled and very, very strong.

When I first shook hands with Datuk Leslie Davidson, a 77-year-old former planter, I was left with numb fingers before blood flowed into my right hand.

In an interview with Davidson and Mahbob Abdullah, his friend and former subordinate, both talked about their upcoming books.

Scheduled to be launched in early 2009, the books tell of their amusing and poignant experiences as planters in the tropics between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Davidson was also in Kuala Lumpur to receive the Merdeka Award from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for his outstanding contribution to Malaysian people.

The Merdeka Award, a Petronas initiative co-founded with ExxonMobil and Shell, came with a trophy, certificate and RM500,000 cash.

Davidson’s contribution could be attributed to efforts 30 years…

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The Star
Saturday - December 13, 2008
by Loong Tse Min

Steadier prices of palm oil by-products have helped soften the blow suffered by plantation companies following the sharp fall in crude palm oil (CPO) prices, especially those with downstream operations, analysts said.

“One of the things that people don’t talk about is the other palm oil-related derivatives (commodity futures), which can at times be better when CPO futures are down,” Jupiter Securities head of research Pong Teng Siew told StarBiz.

Crude palm kernel oil (CPKO), which is a raw material for soap, had a more stable demand than cooking oil, he said, noting that the demand for cooking oil was one of the main drivers of CPO price.

“There is not much speculation to drive CPKO prices to unsustainable levels,” he added.

While the volume of CPO futures has fluctuated in the past three weeks, there had been effectively no…

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New Straits Times
Friday - December 12, 2008
by Hamzah Jamaludin
Malaysia and Indonesia will find ways to boost palm oil prices as falling prices will affect the economy of both countries, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

Abdullah said he raised the matter with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a courtesy call he made here yesterday.

“I will ask the relevant minister and agencies to discuss the matter with the Indonesian authorities as soon as possible.”

Abdullah said it was important for both countries to check the decline in palm oil prices over the past few months as the two nations produce 80 per cent of the world’s palm oil production.

“Palm oil is one of our important sources of revenue and we will take action based on the suggestions made by the ministry and agencies involved.”

The two nations have also agreed…

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