Oil palm targets met

KUALA LUMPUR: The key performance indicators of eight entry-point projects (EPPs) under the Government's Palm Oil NKEA showed commendable achievements in meeting the targets set in 2011, the first year of implementation.

Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Datuk Dr Choo Yuen May said: “About 10 of the activities under the EPPs have achieved 100% or more of the various targets set.”

MPOB manages about 6 of the eight EPPs. Five of the EPPs address upstream productivity and sustainability, while the other three address downstream value addition and sustainability.

To increase productivity, Choo pointed out that MPOB EPP1 aimed to replant old trees with higher yielding varieties; EPP2 to improve fresh fruit bunches (FFB) yield through good agricultural practices; EPP3 to improve worker productivity mainly through mechanisation; EPP4 to increase oil extraction rate at palm oil mills; and EPP5 to get all palm oil mills to trap biogas from their mill effluent for heat and power generation.


Commendable: The KPIs of eight EPPs under the Government’s Palm Oil NKEA meet the targets set in 2011, the first year of implementation MPOB manages about 6½ of the eight EPPs. Five of the EPPs address upstream productivity and sustainability, while the other three address downstream value addition and sustainability. — AFP
To create gross national income from value addition, EPP6 focuses on oleo-derivative products; EPP7 on second-generation biofuels using oil palm lignocellulosic biomass; while EPP8 looks into expediting growth in the food and health-based downstream segments.

Choo said the total investment for oleo derivatives jumped 151% to RM86.9mil as at end-December 2011 from the targeted RM57.6mil.

This was followed by EPP5, where the number of palm oil mills built with biogas facility had risen to 48 mills, 133% higher than the target of 36 mills for 2011.

Another encouraging progress is in EPP8, where new revenue generated from MPOB's commercialised food and health-based products had surpassed the target of RM20mil, rising 114% to RM22.8mil.

In addition, EPP8 in the number of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) participating in anchor model slated at two SMEs have met 100% target.

Zooming in on EPP1 in the upstream sector, Choo said the area of backlog cleared by plantations and organised smallholders managed to achieve 83.2% or 83,200ha last year, compared with 100,000ha in the earlier target.

Areas of new planting and replanting by smallholders, meanwhile, reached 74.6% of the total 26,600ha. Of the total application for 37,432.64ha, about 29,995.09ha were approved and verified, she said.


Choo said oil palm felled and replanted was at 19,768.54ha, where 8,429ha were for new planting and 11,338.92ha for replanting.

On the need to improve FFB yield in EPP2, she said MPOB managed to meet 100% targets to recruit and train 100 new Tunas (agriculture) officers in 2011, as well as create 11 new smallholder co-operatives.

In another development, she said the Government's B5 programme (a blend of 5% biodiesel and 95% fossil fuel diesel) in the central region was successfully implemented in phases beginning June and completed in November last year. The central region covers Putrajaya, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

The B5 programme started in February 2009. From February 2009 to November 2011, the total B5 supply through the Klang Valley Distribution Terminal was about 15.03 million litres, or 12,778 tonnes, and palm methyl ester utilisation was 751,674 million litres, or 649 tonnes.