Overview
Palm oil is the second most widely produced edible oil, behind soybean oil in the world. As of 2009 Indonesia was the largest producer of palm oil, surpassing Malaysia in 2006, producing more than 20.9 million tonnes. With little in their way Indonesia aspires to become the worlds top producer of palm oil.
Opportunities
The LSI Group is seeking qualified partners to participate in the following projects:
- The purchase of existing palm plantation land
- The construction of palm oil refinery and production facility
- Seeking qualified buyers/end users of Indonesian palm oil product
Market Analysis
Demand for this commodity is rapidly increasing because of recent trans-fat health concerns and bio-fuel development. In addition to being used in the food industry, palm oil is also used in over 200 other products including cosmetics and bath products. China dominates the world palm oil market, in terms of consumption, as stated by the new market research report on palm oil. China does not produce palm oil and is completely dependent on imports to meet the domestic demand.
Economic Benefits
People globally benefit from palm oil through improved food security and an access to cheaper supply of cooking oil; and for the two main producer countries, namely Malaysia and Indonesia, palm oil earns an estimated US$40 billion a year in terms of export revenue. Most of the income would be well distributed to families in the rural farming communities who can then send their children for basic education which will enable them to earn a decent living in the future, and live comfortably in the modern world where hand phones are a common need and ipads are occasionally a new household item to replace the need to buy newspapers.
Sustainability
The LSI Group looks far beyond using just the oil and economic impact, and propose to convert fronds, empty fruit bunches and palm kernel shells harvested from oil palm plantations into renewable electricity, cellulosic ethanol, biogas, biohydrogen and bioplastic. Oil palm plantations yield large amount of biomass that can be recycled into medium density fibreboards and light furniture. After Anaerobic treatment of palm oil mill effluent the resulting biogas can substitute for natural gas for use at factories.
More Information
The LSI Group is currently participating and/or connected to several opportunities related to palm oil refining, plantations, and production. For more information on Palm Oil opportunities please contact us.
Resources
Palm Oil – wikipedia.org
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) – rspo.org
