For week ending Jan. 10, 2008

       Seven vegetable oils comprised imports in September led by palm oil at 1,095 MT; volume shrank 93.6% from 16,994 MT. Rapeseed oil followed with delivery of 249 MT, off by 26.8% from prior year at 340 MT; then soybean oil with 147 MT, down by 85.5% from 1,012 MT; and olive oil. Other imports were sunflower oil 83 MT (258 MT year-ago), corn oil 68 MT (299 MT), sesame oil 41 MT (57 MT).

       Hayashida said their plan is to process coconut into CME or coconut methyl ester, an essential component for the production of bio-diesel. A CME plant will be put up in Curimao, Ilocos Norte that will process the coconut production in Northern Luzon. The plant’s output will be shipped to Japan which Hayashida said will not even be enough to fill Japan’s huge bio-fuel requirement. Baterina said the project will establish the biggest coconut plantation in the country and underscored the benefits to local folks via employment generation and environment protection. The coconut seedlings that will be utilized are the “Simba” variety.

       Export in September went to 36 countries. The top six importers held volumes above 200 MT and collectively accounted for 83.1% of total trade. Leading the pack was UAE/Dubai with 1,176 MT, followed by Pakistan with 678 MT, UAR/Egypt 467 MT, Germany 258 MT, France 257 MT, and Saudi Arabia 224 MT. Four other countries took in between 120 MT and 172 MT and together comprised 13.7% of the market. They were as follows, in descending order, Bangladesh, Spain, Portugal, and United States. The remaining 26 other countries with combined share of 3.2% bought volume ranging 1-99 MT.

       Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a statement early this week that a special Cabinet committee has decided to “increase the production quota of subsidized cooking oil significantly in the nearest future.” He said the supply problem has been compounded by hoarding and smuggling of Malaysia’s relatively cheap cooking oil to other countries, apparently referring to Singapore and Thailand. Abdullah expressed confidence that supply would return to normal in a few days after additional cooking oil is pumped into the market, adding that prices would not be raised and rationing would no longer be required. Last year, Malaysia spent nearly MYR800 million to subsidize cooking oil.

       Figures from Chinese Customs for the period January-October 2007 show the country imported 6.965 million MT of edible oil valued at US$4.99 billion. The volume rose by 26.6% from prior year while value nearly doubled (+98.6%), indicating huge spikes in price levels. Palm oil import at 3.756 million MT was paid at an average price of US$706.10/MT, appreciating significantly by 60.2% from prior year level. Import of soybean oil at 2.217 million MT was traded at US$727.60/MT, a jump by 44.9% from last year. Analysts said vegetable oils are replacing pork oil which has become costly due to production shortfall.

       Argentina exported nearly 320,000 MT of biodiesel last year (2007) worth $268.4 million and paid at an average price of $841/MT. The Agriculture Ministry said the United States was the main destination accounting for 76%. The European Union imported virtually the remainder for a market share of 23.7%. There are eight firms approved to manufacture biodiesel in Argentina with annual production capacity of 600,000 MT. It is predicted that by the end of the current year, biodiesel capacity will expand to 1.5 million MT per year. Argentine biofuels are produced from animal fats and traditional crops including soybeans, corn, sunflower, sorghum, and sugar cane, as well as non-traditional crops such as rape, from which rapeseed oil is extracted.

       Biodiesel is produced in Brazil from soybeans, castor seeds, sunflower seeds and palm fruits. Most of Brazil’s available biodiesel, however, comes from soybeans. The country plans to increase the biodiesel component to 5% by 2013 as production of soybean-based biodiesel increases.

       The Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) in South Africa announced the government will exclude maize from the initial stages of the country’s biofuels program following food security concerns and high prices. Maize is a staple food source for majority of the country. However, biotechnology firm Monsanto and farmers group Grain South Africa have criticized the government’s decision to exclude maize from its biofuels policy, claiming it will hurt farmers, the economy and affect the country’splans to hand over 30% of all agricultural land to the black majority by 2014. Blending targets at present have been set at 8% for ethanol and 2% for biodiesel.

       The novel process which was developed by Dr. Valerie Dupont and her co-investigators in the University Faculty of Engineering mixes glycerol with steam at a controlled temperature and pressure, separating the waste product into hydrogen, water and carbon dioxide, with no residues. A special absorbent material filters out the carbon dioxide, which leaves a much purer product. Current production methods are expensive and unsustainable, using either increasingly scarce fossil fuel sources such as natural gas, or other less efficient methods such as water electrolysis. Dr. Dupont said their process is clean, renewable alternative to conventional methods.