High hopes for palm oil Published on Jun 17, 2004
The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry yesterday approved a 25-year plan aimed at boosting the country's palm oil production as part of an effort to secure a viable alternative energy to fossil fuels, Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said. The plan calls for an increase in the palm plantation area by 10 million rai in 2029 and palm fruit production of 25.8 million tonnes a year, a rise of more than 500 per cent from the current output of 4.9 million tonnes, Somsak said. An incentive would also be offered to encourage rubber growers to switch to oil-palms, he said, adding they would get Bt6,800 a rai in compensation from the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund. One strategy is to build an "oil-palm industrial city" where palm fruits would be processed to make value-added goods, such as bio-diesel vehicle fuel, instead of simple products, which has been the case, the minister said yesterday after a meeting of ministry executives to discuss the plan. He said alternative energy from palm oil was expected to reduce imports of fuel by at least 5 per cent a year, or Bt18 billion, by 2029. After the 25-year plan has run its course, the value of the palm industry would increase to Bt231 billion from Bt50 billion today. Saowalak Pumyaem, The Nation [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
