Nature Alert: Charoen to invest US$280mil in palm oil plantations

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Charoen to invest US$280mil in palm oil plantations

The Star online, Malaysia
Wednesday March 12, 2008

Charoen to invest US$280mil in palm oil plantations

JAKARTA: A unit of agro and aquaculture firm Charoen Pokphand Indonesia Tbk plans to invest US$280mil to develop palm oil plantations in West Kalimantan driven by demand for biofuel, a company official said yesterday.

Junaidi Sungkono, president director of PT Charindo Palma Plantation, said the funds would be spent on plantations and six palm oil fruit crushing mills in West Kalimantan. The project is due to be completed in 2015.

“Palm oil prospects are very good. Our domestic demand for crude palm oil-based biofuel has risen, so we would like to supply the needs,” Sungkono told Reuters, without elaborating on how much it intended to expand its plantations.

The company launched its palm oil business in 2006 by buying 67,500ha and began planting last year. From this initial investment, it expects to produce 239,200 tonnes of crude palm oil in 2016.

Crude palm oil prices have jumped more than 45% since the start of the year with Malaysia's benchmark May contract hitting an historic high of RM4,486 (US$1,402) a tonne on March 4 compared with RM3,082 on Jan 2.

Sungkono said the company planned to finance the project using US$20mil of its own funds and the balance through bank loans.

He also said the firm was looking at increasing its returns by developing palm oil byproducts.
“We are thinking of making oleochemical products in the future,” he said, adding that the plan would depend on government programmes and local infrastructure.

Indonesia is the world's top crude palm oil producer after surpassing Malaysia and expects its output of the commodity to reach 20 million tonnes in 2010. – Reuters

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.