K233.5 million needed for oil palm development: Official
A TOTAL of K233.5 million is required to develop 10,000 hectares of oil palm in the country, an official says.
Oil Palm Industry Corporation (OPIC) acting general secretary Leslie Wungen said it meant 100,000 ha of new oil palm projects would entail a total investment of K2.335 billion.
“Assuming an average of 20 tonnes per ha, 100,000 ha will generate 200,000 tonnes of FFB (fresh fruit bunches),” Wungen said during the 2019 commodity board retreat in Port Moresby on Tuesday.
“This converts to 460,000 tonnes of CPO (crude palm oil) based on 23 per cent recovery rate.
“At an average, CPO market price of US$750 ( K2, 55.9) per tonne will generate US$345 million, which translates to K1.15 billion.
“In the first three years you would recover your investment cost.”
Wungen said PNG had 0.25 million hectares of oil palm planted which generated K1.3 billion.
“Imagine planting 6.24 million hectares of land suitable for oil palm and generating K72 billion.”
Meanwhile, he said oil palm feeder roads leading to small oil palm block holders in the five project areas needed upgrading and maintenance.
“Milling companies have been unable collect the FFB.
Consequently, production has dropped from areas affected by poor roads because of less attention given to oil palm and focus on other crops like beetle nuts.
3 comments
The figures in millions and billions are just calculations nothing more. These projects are the special lease agreements in disguise…its timbers for plantations and as we know it will be asians again driving these projects with timber harvesting and nothing tangible to show for. Surely there are other beneficial projects that landowners can participate in.
These are just assumed figures like any other project. We don’t need oil palm to generate revenue. These are Asian investments in the country that we hardly see any returns on. How many more hectares do we need when they have already developed vast hectares in different provinces and landowners do not see any developments at all and hardly participate in any spin off opportunities.
Oil palm is just a blockage project for indigenous people to venture into other agricultural products/initiatives that will directly benefit the people in their own land.
Abe. The figures given are based on actual fact. NBPOL and it’s small growers alone generated on average K1.3 billion in revenue per annum for the past 15 to 20 years, which accounts for about 55 percent of revenue from The agriculture comodities. Name any one crop that generated similar revenue over the past 20 years. Surely no other crop can match this record. Check BPNG qurterly report for the past 20 years before u open your mouth.
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