For week ending Jun. 07, 2007

       The tournament which will be held Fridays beginning June 29 through to July 20, 2007, is sponsored by CIIF Oil Mills, Pilipinas Kao, POMS Ventures, San Miguel Oils & Fats, and Cocochem, all Gold Sponsors; and Cargill Philippines, Silver Sponsor. Venue of the event will be the Puyat Sports – Starlanes, 4th Floor, Starmall Complex, Mandaluyong City (at the corner of EDSA and Shaw Blvd.).

       Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) Administrator Oscar Garin said the government has opted to implement an intercropping (mainly with corn) strategy in regenerating the country’s distressed coconut farms with its numerous advantages over merely fertilization. First, intercropping costs lower, requiring only P1,000 per hectare for the cheaper inbred seed and inoculants as opposed to P5,000 per hectare through fertilization. Second, since deep plowing will be involved not only in corn planting but also within the coconut tree area, which studies showed yield benefits through soil aeration, yield will be higher by 15% to 1.15 MT per hectare compared to the traditional one MT. That gives farmers additional income.

       In contrast, import of soybean oil expanded vastly by nearly three-folds from 854 MT last year to 2,447 MT. Similarly, uptake of sunflower oil leaped sharply by 69.1% from 97 MT to 164 MT as well as rapeseed oil which nearly doubled from 174 MT to 340 MT. Other imports were olive oil at 15 MT (11 MT last year), and palm kernel oil at 44 MT (nil).

       Indonesia, this month’s second placer, has dislodged Malaysia as top palm oil origin with delivery of 861 MT. Denmark’s sale of 312 MT of rapeseed oil placed her in the third spot. Other significant suppliers were Thailand at 220 MT and Singapore at 117 MT which shipped in soybean oil only.

       Chris de Lavigne, vice president at NRG corporate advisor Frost and Sullivan, said the first plant would likely be located within the PNOC-AFC Industrial Park in Bataan. To produce feedstock for the planned bio-refineries, NRG would bankroll the establishment of more than 1 million hectares of jatropha plantations in different areas all over the country, mostly be located in Mindanao. While waiting for its jathropa production to reach commercial scale, NRG would be using local coconut and possibly other vegetable oil as feedstock for the first bio-refinery. In addition to the bio-refineries and jatropha plantations, NRG would also invest $200 million for the construction of two ethanol plants with total capacity of 300,000 MT. However, the ethanol output would be used in biodiesel refining process, ethanol being a key component in the technology that NRG used in the production of biodiesel and other bio-materials.

       Seven years after it was first proposed, finally Indonesia has established its own palm oil industry board similar to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. Called the Indonesian Palm Oil Chamber (DMSI), it will comprise of government and private sector representatives and experts and will be responsible for improving the image of the Indonesian palm oil industry globally. DMSI will be headed Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono. It aims to make palm oil and its products to be global market leaders and become a major contributor to Indonesia’s economic strength, said Apriyantono, adding that the creation of the board will enable the country to overtake Malaysia as the world’s biggest palm oil producer.

       According to reports, India’s Committee of Secretaries (COS) headed by cabinet secretary B K Chaturvedi has made the duty cut recommendation to the CCP. The Committee has concluded that edible oils will continue to exert pressure on inflation during the current year and a reduction in duties across the board to make imports cheaper could bridge the supply-demand gap in the domestic market. Around 40% of the country’s total edible oil consumption is met through imports.

       Singapore-listed firm Indofood Agri Resources in a statement said it will buy Indonesian oil palm plantation firm London Sumatra for S$1.59 billion. It said it will buy an initial 64.4% in London Sumatra from various controlling shareholders for about one billion dollars and then make an offer for the remaining stake for S$589 million. Indofood Agri Resources has an extensive agricultural portfolio including oil palm cultivation. The company said the target group is one of the largest producers of crude palm oil in Indonesia. The proposed acquisition will enable Indofood Agri Resources to expedite its strategy of increasing its oil palm planted area to 250,000 hectares and achieving self-sufficiency in meeting the group’s CPO requirements.

       Bangladesh’s average monthly demand for edible oils is around 100,000 MT and nearly 90% of that demand is met by imported soya and palm oils. It has been claimed that importers are persuading the government to introduce a zero duty on the import of crude edible oils following its recent price hike in the international market.

       The publishers of Oil World Annual 2007 announced the publication is now available. The 2007 issue of the OIL WORLD annual analyzes the world market situation and prospects in the current season and publish the first 2007/08 projections for each 10 oilseeds, the 17 oils and fats as well as for the 12 oilmeals. Covering 39 commodities and 150 countries, the databank carries comprehensive information on world supply/ demand & trade balances and country breakdown. The ANNUAL focuses also on the rapidly expanding demand for vegetable oils as biofuel and the impact on the global demand, trade and prices of oils and fats as well as the repercussions on oilseeds and oilmeals. It is also available on CD-ROM with statistics in HTML-format. To order and for additional information, visit www.oilworld.biz or contact ISTA Mielke GmbH, Langenberg 25, 21077 Hamburg/Germany.