For week ending Mar. 05, 2009

       Likewise, export of copra meal was slashed by a dismal 78.4% to 7,800 MT from 36,031 MT. Korea was the sole importer of this month?s copra meal export. Desiccated coconut export contracted moderately by 14.9% to 6,953 MT from 8,170 MT. Meanwhile, oleochemicals was a standout from the gloom finishing with slight rise of 1.8% at 6,586 MT as copra from 6,467 MT.

       ?We?ve maid soy based products for 20 years, but our consumers wanted an alternative to soy, so we turned to coconut milk because of its versatility and intriguing health properties?, said Mark Brawerman, Turtle Mountain?s founder and president. Tucker explained that coconut milk contains a different type of fat than dairy product. Its medium chain fatty acids are recognized for their antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties. Unlike long chain fatty acids, which are stored in the body as fat, the medium chain versions are used as energy by the body.

       The Solvent Extractors? Association of India projected the country?s import of sunflower oil in the current 2008/09 season to jump to over 300,000 MT, nearly 12 times the prior season at 26,000 MT. The increase in market share, which will be at the expense of soybean oil, is being attributed to lower landed cost of sunflower oil compared to soybean oil. The government has not imposed import duties on sunflower oil as it has done for soybean oil. First quarter purchases of sunflower oil in the current season now reached 125,000 MT, nearly five times the volume for the whole 2007/08 season.

       The first six months of the marketing year already recorded export of 950,000 MT of sunflower oil, and if the ?positive export dynamics? can be sustained, the country will be able to export the same volume for the rest year of the 2008/09 season. The Creative Group, however, added that the vegetable oil sector in Ukraine was facing many problems including a slowdown in development, the refunding of VAT to exporters of sunflower oil, and the ?permanent attempts of the government to cancel the 13% export duties for sunflower seeds?.

       ?Receiving our RSPO certification is a landmark achievement in our continuous effort to have all Cargill-invested oil palm plantations RSPO certified?, said Richard Tan, chief executive officer of CTP Holdings, Cargill?s oil palm joint venture. PT Hindoli is a subsidiary of CTP Holdings.

       Biodiesel production is highly dependent on government subsidies, but one of the major users, the EU, has imposed a requirement whereby carbon emissions from biodiesel must be 35% or less than that from crude oil, the report said, adding that palm-based biodiesel faces significant hurdles in meeting this requirement, and therefore Malaysia and Indonesia are trying to give a push to local sales of biodiesel.

       A great deal of effort has been put forth to observe the HACCP (Hazards Analysis Critical Control Points) program as well as ISO 22000:2005 International Auditable Standard Systems-Food Safety Management System, which meet the FDA (United States), CFIA (Canada), and GMP Plus (Europe) standards for good manufacturing practices in food production and food safety. This enables BioExx to supply both domestic and international markets, and is also consistent with the BioExx mission to be a specialty producer of natural food oils and high-value proteins.

       The study, led by Ted Labuza, formulated a range of IMF containing between 10 and 40 percent moisture, containing whey protein, and using four polyols namely, glycerol, propylene glycol, maltitol, and sorbitol. The most effective additive for lowering water-activity, a measure of the hardening of the bar, was glycerol which maintained the soft texture of the formulation, followed by sorbitol and maltitol. These three polyols were found to stabilize the native structure of the whey proteins, and slow the hardening of the food. Propylene glycol, on the other hand, had detrimental effects on product acceptability in that it produced changes in the protein structure and stability, resulting into aggregation of the proteins and hardening of the bar texture.

       Finland?s Neste Oil will start the construction of a biofuel plant in Singapore this month. The plant, which will be the company?s largest with an annual capacity of 800,000 MT, will start operation in 2010. The refiner is spending 550 million Euros to build the plant as part of a strategy to become the world?s leading producer of diesel from renewable feedstock. The plant will initially cater to Europe?s growing biofuel requirement. Demand for biodiesel in Europe is currently around 6 million to 8 million MT annually but this is projected to rise to 13 million to 15 million MT by 2010.