KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Bernama) — Policy makers and industry players should put more emphasis on increasing the national average yields of the two leading palm oil producers — Malaysia and Indonesia — which have stagnated over the last two decades.

“Malaysia, for example, has not really been replanting its oil palm (and this) has resulted in the fall in the yields,” United Plantation Bhd’s vice-chairman/executive director (corporate affairs), Carl Bek-Nielsen, told Bernama at the International Palm Oil Congress here Wednesday.

He said more replanting should be undertaken in Malaysia because over 50 percent of the trees were more than 15 years old and over 40 percent more than 20 years old.

“We should not have this situation actually (as it will lower the average yields). We should have an average age profile of at least between 11 and 13 years instead of more than 15 years,” he said.

Bek-Nielsen said more planters currently were reluctant to replant as it would reduce their revenue amid the current high crude palm oil prices.

“This is the situation here (in Malaysia). Once the prices go down, they will not have the money to proceed with their replanting activities properly.

“The MPOB (Malaysian Palm Oil Board) should use its decision-making power to ask companies to replant when yields fall below 16 tonnes fresh fruit bunches per hectare in areas where the trees are more than 20 years old,” he said.

Bek-Nielsen said if the planters did not want to replant, it meant that they were not helping their own plantation companies and the nation.

He said smallholders must also be helped to increase the yields.

“If we can increase our yields just by half a tonne per ha per year then the country will be able to produce more than 1.9 million additional tonnes of palm oil on the same acreage,” he said.

– BERNAMA

Share The Story :

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Malaysia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.