Indonesia to assists Lanka’s palm oil cultivation

Indonesia has agreed to help Sri Lanka in expanding palm oil cultivation in the country.

An agreement has been signed to this effect during recent discussions held by Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe with the Indonesian officials.

As a result Indonesian officials have agreed to provide expert knowledge and new palm varieties with higher yields to Sri Lanka. According to an agreement between the two countries Indonesia is set to provide 22 palm varieties and 200,000 seeds to produce saplings.

They have also agreed to train agricultural field officers and provide necessary technical knowledge to expand cultivation.

At present Sri Lanka imports 160,000 metric tonnes of palm oil annually at the cost of Rs. 14 billion. Sri Lanka’s palm oil production at present is 17,000 metric tonnes annually.

As palm oil usage is on the increase the Government expects to save the foreign exchange through spread of palm oil, according to the Ministry.

With Indonesian help the Minister expects to increase oil palm production in the country in excess of 100,000 metric tonnes annually in the near future.

Palm oils falls a fourth day; USDA data eyed

Kuala Lumpur (Reuters): Malaysia palm oil extended losses to a fourth day on Wednesday on a technical correction although other vegetable oil markets gained ahead of a key US crop report that is likely to show tighter supplies.

Palm oil rallied to a 33-month high last week on concerns that heavy rains in palm oil-producing Southeast Asian and a dry spell in soy oil-exporting South America will curb vegetable oil output.

But traders now feel the rally might have been overdone after Malaysian palm data showed a lower than expected decline in stocks and Brazilian soy crop may not be as badly affected as the crop in Argentina.

“The market is going for technical selling and long liquidation after sharp rise of over 300 ringgit last week,” said a trader in Kuala Lumpur.

Benchmark March 2011 palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives dropped one per cent to 3,665 ringgit ($1,193.034) by midday. Overall traded volume stood at 9,310 lot of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 7,500 lots.

Traders are also waiting for a key US agriculture data due later on Wednesday, which is likely to cut the forecast for South American soy output due to dry weather and show lower US soybean stocks.

Weaker soybean production and end-stocks suggest less crops will be available for crushing into soy oil, and consumers may rely more on palm oil.

Other vegetable oils, which are increasingly used as a feedstock for biofuel that competes with petroleum diesel, edged higher on Wednesday as crude steadied above $91.