AFRICA'S NO.1 FOOD, BEVERAGE & MILLING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

Unilever partners with tech company Orbital Insight to enhance traceability in palm oil sourcing

Aug 20, 2020Aug 20, 2020 Editor

UK – Unilever, a consumer goods company, has teamed up with US-based tech company, Orbital Insight, to boost palm oil sourcing transparency. The collaboration is piloting technology that uses geolocation data to help identify and map the individual farms and plantations that are most likely to be supplying the palm oil mills in Unilever’s extended supply chain. This approach is touted by the company as bringing a “new level of sophistication to traceability” – one that has the potential to work on a massive scale. “This means we can get a much clearer…

Feronia sells stake in DRC palm oil subsidiary to investment company KKM

Jul 30, 2020Jul 30, 2020 Editor

DRC – Feronia Inc. an agribusiness company operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has entered into a definitive purchase agreement with Straight KKM 2 Limited (KKM) to sell its equity interests in its operating subsidiary, Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC). PHC is Feronia’s palm oil business which it acquired from Unilever in 2009. It produces crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel oil (PKO). KKM is an entity incorporated in Mauritius primarily owned by a number of funds for which Kuramo Africa Opportunity Offshore Fund II…

IFAD, Mars and ICRAF invest US$4m on sustainable farming project in Indonesia and the Philippines

Jul 18, 2020Jul 19, 2020 Editor

ASIA – The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Mars, Incorporated and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) have partnered to invest US$4 million on a five-year research-in-development project, Sustainable Farming in Tropical Asian Landscapes (SFITAL) in Indonesia and the Philippines. The project, according to a press-release by IFAD, aims to explore how agricultural systems can be managed sustainably in entire landscapes in a way that respects the environment and enables the producers to thrive by linking them to global supply chains. SFITAL will focus on palm oil in Indonesia and cocoa in…

Nigeria enjoys 100% duty exemption on Crude Palm Oil from Malaysia

Jul 13, 2020Jul 13, 2020 Editor

NIGERIA – Malaysia, the world’s second- largest producer of the Palm Oil has offered Nigeria 100% duty exemption on crude palm Oil (CPO) export from July till December 31, 2020 to replenish declining stock and surge in demand post-Covid-19, coupled with decline in the international price of the commodity. The move is part of efforts to enable the buyers ferry about 295,000 metric tonnes of the produce valued at N77.06billion (US$171.24million) at a reduced price of US$580.50 per metric tonne, reports New Telegraph. According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council…

Central Bank of Nigeria funds production of nine agricultural commodities with US$1.1bn

Jun 19, 2020Jun 19, 2020 Editor

NIGERIA – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has targeted to fund the value chains of nine agricultural commodities in the 2020 wet planting season to the tune of N432bn (US$1.1bn) to prevent the country from sliding into a recession, as is currently being experienced in some major economies of the world. The commodities to be funded include rice, cotton, oil palm, tomato, cassava, poultry, fish, maize, cocoa and livestock/diary. The funding would be sent through designated participating banks, targeting over 1.1 million farmers, cultivating over one million hectares of…

Sierra Leone launches US$191.9m oil palm project with support from IFAD

Jun 4, 2020Jun 8, 2020 Editor

SIERRA LEONE – Agriculture Value Chain Development Project (AVDP) in Sierra Leone, financed by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) has signed a memorandum of Understanding with the country’s second largest university, Njala University to implement a US$191.9m Oil Palm project. The project will see the nursing of around 540,000 oil palm seedlings in the next three months to be distributed to fifteen palm oil producing districts across the country. According to the 2019 palm oil value chain analysis in Sierra Leone conducted by the European Commission, the oil…

Sime Darby Plantation offloads its Liberian oil palm business unit

Jan 21, 2020Jan 21, 2020 Editor

LIBERIA – Sime Darby Plantation (SDP), a Malaysian oil palm planation company has completed the sale of its entire 100% equity interest in its palm oil concession in Liberia, Sime Darby Plantation Liberia Inc. (SDPL) to Mano Palm Oil Industries Limited (MPOI). MPOI is a subsidiary of Liberia’s largest manufacturer of household, health and cleaning products Mano Manufacturing Company (MANCO) who was a principal buyer of Sime Darby’s palm oil since 2015. The Bursa Malaysia filing follows an earlier press statement in December 2019 that a Sale & Purchase Agreement…

Presco Plc to invest in Nigeria’s oil palm seed sector to expand production capacity

Jan 14, 2020Jan 14, 2020 Editor

NIGERIA – Presco Plc, a palm-oil processing firm listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, has signed a partnership deal with the Edo State Government to develop high yielding oil palm seeds in the state as part of the Edo State Oil Palm Programme (ESOPP). The ESOPP is an initiative of the state government to revive the palm oil sector for global competitiveness. The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki revealed that, “Presco has a laboratory in Europe and they are thinking of expanding the laboratory here to Nigeria so that…

Malaysian Sime Darby to close operations in Liberia in restructuring strategy

Sep 5, 2019Sep 5, 2019 Editor

LIBERIA – Sime Darby Plantation, a Malaysian oil palm planation company has disclosed that it will be closing its operation in Western Liberia by the end of this year in a move that seeks to improve the company’s balance sheets. The company said that it will divest its assests in Liberia by end of the year under the group’s asset monetization strategy under which sale proceeds will be used to cut borrowings, reports FrontPageAfrica. The company has employed over 1,700 workers in the region contributing not less than US$1.2 million…

Zambian agribusiness firm to invest US$200m in a palm oil project

Sep 4, 2019 Editor

ZAMBIA – Consolidated Farming Limited, subsidiary of Sable group, will be investing US$200 million in setting up a large -scale palm oil processing industry in Luapula Province, Zambia. The investment will also cover a 10 thousand hectares anchor farm and an out-grower scheme, reports Lusaka Times. The company’s director Essof Alloo said that upon completion of the project, the company will be producing palm oil as edible oil for both the local and Great Lakes markets. Consolidated Farming will initially set up a 100 hectares oil palm nursery in Mbereshi…