Palm oil refinery, chocolate factory feasibility studies
KOTA KINABALU: Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong has taken the initiative to resolve a few outstanding issues with regard to palm oil, rubber and endangered wild life species in Sabah, by collaborating with the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI).
He had a fruitful discussion and meeting with Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok yesterday at Putrajaya, which was also attended by Sabah Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry (MAFI) permanent secretary Dr Mariana Tinggal and Sabah Rubber Industry Board general manager Datuk Harris Mathew.
Junz disclosed that MAFI was facilitating a meeting with Teresa in early April for Sabah oil palm players to ensure Sabah palm oil smallholders complied with the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certificate standard.
During yesterday’s meeting with Teresa, Teck Guan Group also presented the issues of increasing the usage of bio-diesel to B30 soonest, and using B100 in 50,000 farm tractors and heavy machinery, and also to ensure palm oil is converted to bio-diesel with proper certification.
Meanwhile, MAFI and MPI are joining forces to promote Malaysia palm oil campaign ‘Sayangi Minyak Sawitku’, which will be launched soon.
Teresa is also exploring the possibility of setting up a palm oil refinery and a chocolate manufacturing factory in the West Coast of Sabah. Feasibility studies will be carried out on the projects.
Regarding the ‘Bantuan Musim Tengkujuh’ for rubber smallholders, Junz said MPI would write to the Ministry of Finance for this aid.
“In order to intensify collaboration with MPI, MAFI will assist in facilitating several projects. One of them is getting industrial players to land a million trees for forest reserve areas in Sabah,” Junz added.
On saving the elephants campaign, he announced that MAFI would act as a facilitator for Teresa and Datuk Christina Liew, Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister.
The campaign’s main areas would be aimed at palm oil owners to facilitate walkway corridors for the Borneo elephants, especially when the corridors might sit on their plantations.
“This campaign will call up industrial players to contribute funds to plant food for our Borneo pygmy elephants along the corridor,” Junz added.