NBPOL suffers output drop

 NEW Britain Palm Oil Ltd suffered a drop in the volume of processed fresh fruit bunch (FFB) during the first nine months of this year.

During the January-October period, the palm oil company processed a total of 1,620,000 tonnes of FFB, down 7.2% from its output during the same period last year.

It also processed about 463,750 tonnes from smallholders, also reflecting a drop of 12.2% from the same period in review.

Chief executive Nick Thompson said this year had been a challenging one for the company.

NBPOL also experienced a sharper-than-expected drop in available FFB for harvest during the third quarter. 

Comparing the third quarter output with the same period last year, NBPOL said in a report that it suffered a 9.1% fall from its estates and 18.4% from smallholders. 

The report noted that while output volumes had been disappointing, these results were broadly in line with regional yield declines reported across Malaysia and Indonesia, suggesting that this was likely to be a biological yield effect.

Crude Palm Oil (CPO) extraction rates during the period averaged 21.98%, as compared with last year’s 22.24%.

Lower FFB production and lower extraction rates resulted in an 8.3% drop in volume to only 356,085 tonnes of CPO from the same period last year..

On the other hand, palm kernel oil (PKO) production was 35,411 tonnes, up 30.3% from the same period last year.

NBPOL said the increase reflected the oil mill’s an improvement in the palm kernel crushing capacity.

The lower kina-US dollar exchange rate resulted in year-to-date currency losses of US$ 24.9 million as compared with the US$ 12.0 million of currency gains in the same period last year. 

Thompson said: “The current financial year continues to be challenging for the group. 

“However, the business is now well-positioned to capitalise on an improving palm oil pricing environment with the expected return to normalised FFB production and extraction rates next year.”