Prospects for oil palm

TAGBILARAN -- It's been so long since I was last here in Bohol, that when MetroPost former editor Angeline Valencia told me of the opportunity to cover the 4th National Palm Oil Congress, Irma and I didn't hesitate one bit. Over 200 oil palm planters and local government units from the Visayas and Mindanao are gathered here at the Bohol Tropics Hotel for this two-day convention. In fact, we didn't realize until we disembarked from the Ocean Jet that quite a number of participants from Negros were actually coming over, too, like Bayawan City Vice Mayor Rene Gaudiel. The Vice Mayor was telling us that oil palm, aside from rubber tree, is one of their City's two flagship agriculture products.

Engineer Joven Uy, president of Philippine Agriculture Land development & Mill Inc. (PALM Inc.), was on hand at the Tagbilaran port to meet all the participants that Monday. Our very own Dr. Eduardo Lecciones, who is the regional executive director of the Department of Agriculture based in Cebu City, was also there as one of the opening speakers.

PALM Inc., which was for some time scouting for agriculture, chemistry, and biology graduates "preferably from Foundation University and Silliman University", is the country's fourth palm oil mill established since palm oil was recognized as an industry in 1967. (The others are the Menzi Co. in Basilan, the Filipinas Palmoil Plantation Inc., and the Agusan Plantation Inc. by CK Chang.) PALM Inc. maintains a nursery of oil palm seedlings (Tenera hybrid from West Africa) in the town of Ubay, northeast of the capital, and operates a state-of-the-art palm oil mill in a 12-hectare area in the town of Carmen, in the heart of Bohol. Local farmers scattered in about 21 towns here act as "outgrowers", sell their produce to PALM Inc. after 30 months from the time of planting, which takes care of extracting oil from the reddish-orange fresh fruit harvests (about 5.5 tons of palm oil per hectare per year).

The industry looks promising as the province of Bohol aims to plant some 15,000 hectares of idle but suitable land into oil palm. Not only is there available land here (survey showed that 100,000 hectares are either idle or barren like the rolling hills), but more than anything, someone's buying the palm oil they produce; there is a world market for it.

Malaysia, for one, is set to blend five percent palm diesel into petroleum diesel to help bring down the cost of petroleum. Proctor & Gamble, we were also told, is planning to replace upto 20 percent of the petroleum surfectants used in manufacturing detergents and shampoo with coco and palm oil. In fact, the multinational has heavily invested in the palm oil industries in Malaysia and in Indonesia. This is also a growing industry in Negros. There are about seven planters from Negros who are in this Congress.

Planting oil palms also makes sense in areas that are hardly hit by typhoons. Data from the Philippine Palm Oil Industry Development Council says that growing oil palms increases forest cover, provides a greening effect, it holds a high volume of water, increases rainfall, and controls erosion.

Palm oil is taking a very strong beating in the world market, mainly from the makers of soybean and canola oils, who are mostly based in the United States and other advanced countries. As such, oil palm planters have a lot to do to effectively combat this massive propaganda that is putting Philippine oil palm growers at a disadvantage in the world market.

But thanks to the opening up of the Chinese market, prospects are getting brighter for the palm oil industry in the Philippines, according to Cotabato Gov. Manny Pinol, one of the strong advocates of the palm oil industry in the country. In Cotabato, Oil palm is one of four crops that that are endorsed by the Province, along with rubber, bananas, and coconuts.

As a warning, however, Governor Pinol says farmers should not grow

oil palms in areas where there is no mill. It would take at least 5,000 hectares of oil palm to support the operation of one mill, based on the example here in Bohol.

Indeed, the oil palm industry is on the rise in the Visayas and in Mindanao. DTI Region 7 Director Aster Caberte said her office stands fully supportive of the palm oil industry.

Will the oil palm make it big in the two Negros provinces? This is something worth watching for.*

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