CEO: No report on FGV units involvement in open burning

KUALA LUMPUR: FGV Holdings Bhd has not received any report of its subsidiaries’ involvement in open burning in Indonesia that has contributed to the haze affecting the region, its group chief executive officer Datuk Haris Fadzilah Hassan said.

“Until we have the data, we are not able to say if (this) thing is happening or not,” he said at a partnership deal signing ceremony between FGV’S subsidiary Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd (DOP) and DKSH (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd yesterday.

“So far we have not had any report about that but, of course, being in Indonesia is a bit tricky because we have the Perkebunan Inti Rakyat and Plasma Transmigration Programme and there are also some smallholders around the perimeter of the big plantations,” he said.

Perkebunan Inti Rakyat is a joint-venture scheme between companies and smallholders, while the Plasma Transmigration Programme refers to farmers who are taking part in the programme set up by the Indonesian government.

Earlier, Haris pointed out that FGV runs oil palm plantation joint-venture companies with Lembaga Tabung Haji in Kalimantan.

On the haze, FGV chief operating officer of plantation sector and head of palm upstream cluster Syed Mahdhar Syed Hussain said it could affect FGV’S oil extraction rate in October.

“The current crude palm oil price is RM2,100 plus per tonne. I’m talking about five tonnes of crop (extraction) to get one tonne of oil. So, it’s about 20%.

“Its impact is the percentage ratio of the amount of the fresh fruit bunches (that) we can extract, it may impact 0.2% to 0.5% and it’s a lot of percentage, “he told a press conference after the event.

However, this is unlikely to have an impact on FGV’S bottom line, Syed Mahdhar said.

DOP acting chief executive officer Shammim Azad Kamruzaman said the partnership with DKSH is set to strengthen the distribution of FGV’S downstream products in the hotels/restaurants/cafe sector.

DOP expects the partnership to help double its volume, currently averaging Rm3mil per month, within a year.