Liberia signs $1.6 bln palm oil investment: Government

Gabon plans to become leading palm oil producer in Africa

President Ali Bongo has vowed to modernise the west African state’s economy.  Gabon has signed deals to diversify its economy in an attempt to be less reliable on its dwindling oil reserves. The government has announced contracts with Asian companies worth $4.5bn billion dollars. President Ali Bongo signed the agreements on the eve of the country’s 50th anniversary of its independence from France. The projects will revamp infrastructure and create about 50,000 jobs.

New partners

Gabon’s oil output has been declining for years and the new deals are presented as the first steps towards diversification. The largest deal is with the OLAM, a Singapore-based company which plans to develop a huge palm oil plantation in the south east. The government wants to become the leading palm oil producer in Africa.

In terms of infrastructure, the OLAM deal involves the construction of a refinery, and there are plans for a possible port. Another agreement was signed with the Indian company M3M, to build 5,000 low-cost housing units over the next two years.

Ramky Infrastructure, another Indian construction company, will build 1,000 kilometres of tarred road over the next three years in a $1.5bn project that will be jointly financed by the Gabonese government.

Gabon has already attracted a number of Asian investors, notably Malaysian and Chinese companies, but most of them were interested in the mining and timber sectors.

Source: Sierra Leone News (20 August 2010 )

Solid Setting - Palm oil use in South Africa

South Africa has traditionally derived cooking oil from sunflower seed.There has, however, been a recent shift to soybean oil in the cooking oil segment and to palm oil in the bulk-frying market.

Last year, the country imported some 420,000 tonnes of palmoil, of which 170,000 tonnes were supplied by Malaysia.

Hudson & Knight, part of the Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd, is the only ISO 22000-certified oils and fats refinery in the country. It has produced trans-free fats and margarines for the industrial baking sector for more than 14 years, by incorporating palm oil into formulations. These are based on refined palm oil fractions and interesterification, to provide the desired levels of hardness.

South Africa’s current top buyer of palm oil is Willowton Oil & Cake Mills, which manufactures margarine and baking fats using non-hydrogenated vegetable oils. Wilmar Trading, locally represented by Carst & Walker, offers a range of trans-free shortenings and specialty fats.

Epic Foods serves the bakery and confectionery industries. Its Qualibake brand is formulated using Malaysian palm oil. Products are regularly analysed by independent laboratories to ensure that they continue to meet industry standards.

Solid fats consumption

Among South Africa’s edible oil products, the output of solid fats accounts for an estimated 250,000 tonnes a year. This supports about 80% of domestic requirements, with the balance being met

through imports.

Solid fats are used in the household and industrial sectors, at a ratio of 60:40. Industrial users comprise bakeries (including pastry makers), restaurants (including fast-food outlets), food caterers and manufacturers of ice cream, confectionery and snacks.

Bakeries use shortening for bread, biscuits, cakes and pastries. While the industry is fragmented with some 6,000 small bakeries in operation, there are five major producers – Pioneer Foods, Golden Wheat Biscuits, Chipkins Bakery Suppliers, National Brands (Bakers) and Genfood Bakeries.

The confectionery and snacks range from candies, sweets and chocolates to popcorn, pretzels, roasted nuts, chips, cookies, crackers and meat snacks. Manufacturers use specialty fats such as CBS and CBE as coating fats.

Nestle SA has a strong brand presence, accounting for 50% of the solid fats used by this sector. Aarhus supplies the bulk of the Nestle SA’s fats requirements. Other major users are Beacon Sweets &

Chocolates, Canon Foods, Moonlight Sweets and Sugarbird Sweets Pty Ltd.

In the fast-food business, Super Crisp (produced by Felda Bridge) and Crispa Gold (produced by Husdon & Knights) are popular for frying.The two companies jointly supply about 70% of the frying requirements, selling the fats in 20-litre buckets.

Steady demand growth is anticipated in the sweet and savoury snacks sector, as the flavour and packing of foods have improved. Disposable income among the lower- to middle-income groups is also rising, making it more affordable for them to buy snacks.

Increasing consumption of bakery and confectionery products is also attributed to the establishment of such stores by supermarket chains that produce tastier and better quality products.

Palm oil therefore remains well positioned to capture a larger share of the market for solid fats, by eplacing soft oils as a raw material