Thailand to import 50,000 tons of raw palm oil to ease expected shortage

[webfact]

Thailand to import 50,000 tons of raw palm oil to ease expected shortage



BANGKOK: -- The National Oil Palm Policy Committee will officially ask for approval from the Cabinet the imports of 50,000 tons of raw palm oil tomorrow to ease expected shortage of palm oil in the country.

The palm oil shortage is expected as the country’s palm oil plantations were affected by drought since mid-last year, causing a drop in palm oil production

The committee, which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, has agreed on the imports of raw palm oil and has consented to the Public Warehouse Organization (PWO) to import 50,000 tons by mid February, under a budget of 1.5 billion baht.

The committee has also ensured that the price of palm oil would be marked at 42 baht per 1 litre bottle.

At the same time, the committee would coordinate with the Energy Ministry in lowering the mixture of biodiesel from B7 to B3 to help solve the effects of having limited raw palms to meet demand due to low output as the result of drought since last year.

The deputy prime minister said he would be proposing the measure to the Cabinet tomorrow, during the weekly Cabinet meeting, seeking its approval to import the palms in order to adequately produce oil palm to meet demands for only the next 1-2 months.

Gen Prawit also stressed that since the imports would be done on a short term basis it would not affect domestic productions and has asked palm farmers not worry about the issue.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/thailand-import-50000-tons-raw-palm-oil-ease-expected-shortage


-- Thai PBS 2015-01-20

[BSJ]

Why is it they focus on palm oil. Oil can be made from rice....and there is plenty of rice at the moment. Maybe they need to refocus!

[ChrisY1]

Hard to believe anyone nowadays.....the press are limited...both in skill and control by the junta.....and when such a focus is placed on this import, there's a reasonably good chance something's not right!

[JohnThailandJohn]

Why is it they focus on palm oil. Oil can be made from rice....and there is plenty of rice at the moment. Maybe they need to refocus!

That is almost like asking why do we need chicken meat when pork meat is available. Yea it would work but what of all the people who prefer chicken. Not sure I can tell you what rice oil tastes like or how compatible it would be to palm oil but it would be a grain and palm is a vegetable based oil.

I don't remember all the details of the change but remember McDonalds changed the oil they used to make their fries ... if I recall it was early 2000s and they went from an oil with animal fat to a vegetable oil because of some issue with false advertising or something because they promoted the fries as vegetarian ... again not sure if I have the details right but bottom line the fries IMO are not nearly as good and addicting as they used to be (thankfully).

I am not sure why Palm oil is so popular but know a lot of people knock it for health reasons. Found this link that shows a little of just how popular palm oil is worldwide ... http://www.save-wildlife.com/en/our-work/save-the-forests/rainforest-deforestation-for-palm-oil-in-cameroon/why-is-palm-oil-so-popular

[khwaibah]

Rip out the rubber trees and plant palm trees..

[Tatsujin]

Palm oil imports are not unusual, they've been going on for years ... a quick google search will show the headlines.

I'm still not sure why no one has helped these "farmers" (rice, palm oil, etc) to farm more efficiently/effectively and increase yields, or even change crops, that would be of bigger benefit than the usual handouts.

[Ulic]

Just wondering who gets the license to import and sell this palm oil ?

[chotthee]

Just wondering who gets the license to import and sell this palm oil ?

My guess id Suthep et al.

[bggg]

Why is it they focus on palm oil. Oil can be made from rice....and there is plenty of rice at the moment. Maybe they need to refocus!

That is almost like asking why do we need chicken meat when pork meat is available. Yea it would work but what of all the people who prefer chicken. Not sure I can tell you what rice oil tastes like or how compatible it would be to palm oil but it would be a grain and palm is a vegetable based oil.

I don't remember all the details of the change but remember McDonalds changed the oil they used to make their fries ... if I recall it was early 2000s and they went from an oil with animal fat to a vegetable oil because of some issue with false advertising or something because they promoted the fries as vegetarian ... again not sure if I have the details right but bottom line the fries IMO are not nearly as good and addicting as they used to be (thankfully).

I am not sure why Palm oil is so popular but know a lot of people knock it for health reasons. Found this link that shows a little of just how popular palm oil is worldwide ... http://www.save-wildlife.com/en/our-work/save-the-forests/rainforest-deforestation-for-palm-oil-in-cameroon/why-is-palm-oil-so-popular

That is a good link. Palm oil is a horribly destructive product. I so wish people would realize, care and change their preference for this.

[fishingforsquid]

Why is it they focus on palm oil. Oil can be made from rice....and there is plenty of rice at the moment. Maybe they need to refocus!

That is almost like asking why do we need chicken meat when pork meat is available. Yea it would work but what of all the people who prefer chicken. Not sure I can tell you what rice oil tastes like or how compatible it would be to palm oil but it would be a grain and palm is a vegetable based oil.

I don't remember all the details of the change but remember McDonalds changed the oil they used to make their fries ... if I recall it was early 2000s and they went from an oil with animal fat to a vegetable oil because of some issue with false advertising or something because they promoted the fries as vegetarian ... again not sure if I have the details right but bottom line the fries IMO are not nearly as good and addicting as they used to be (thankfully).

I am not sure why Palm oil is so popular but know a lot of people knock it for health reasons. Found this link that shows a little of just how popular palm oil is worldwide ... http://www.save-wildlife.com/en/our-work/save-the-forests/rainforest-deforestation-for-palm-oil-in-cameroon/why-is-palm-oil-so-popular

That is a good link. Palm oil is a horribly destructive product. I so wish people would realize, care and change their preference for this.

Don't eat processed food, simple solution, the people who grow it don't even eat it.

[GettingOlder]

Why is it they focus on palm oil. Oil can be made from rice....and there is plenty of rice at the moment. Maybe they need to refocus!

That is almost like asking why do we need chicken meat when pork meat is available. Yea it would work but what of all the people who prefer chicken. Not sure I can tell you what rice oil tastes like or how compatible it would be to palm oil but it would be a grain and palm is a vegetable based oil.

I don't remember all the details of the change but remember McDonalds changed the oil they used to make their fries ... if I recall it was early 2000s and they went from an oil with animal fat to a vegetable oil because of some issue with false advertising or something because they promoted the fries as vegetarian ... again not sure if I have the details right but bottom line the fries IMO are not nearly as good and addicting as they used to be (thankfully).

I am not sure why Palm oil is so popular but know a lot of people knock it for health reasons. Found this link that shows a little of just how popular palm oil is worldwide ... http://www.save-wildlife.com/en/our-work/save-the-forests/rainforest-deforestation-for-palm-oil-in-cameroon/why-is-palm-oil-so-popular

We need some facts on the table for this discussion to go anywhere...

Growing oil palms is by far the most effective way of producing edible oil - you need 10+ times more land for producing same oil amount by other oil crops like rapeseed, soybean or the like. From a global viewpoint we should be very happy that palm oil is available to cover a large part of the demand. However, the overall analysis is complex as the protein value of the meal also has to be considered. The farming can, like for all other crops, be carried out in ruthless or sustainable ways...

Oil "from rice", the ricebran oil, is solvent extracted from the bran which is produced when polishing the rice (removing the "skin" with all its nutrients to gain the white coloured, tasteless rice which for reason has become so popular). The ricebran oil is 3-4 times more expensive than palm oil on the supermarket shelf, and the small quantities cannot at all substitute palm oil which is the largest oil type in the global market.

The main motivation for McDonalds, and others, to change the frying oil type was to reduce trans fat, as main source used was partially hydrogenated soft oils (soybean etc, containing a lot of trans fat). Earlier, back in 80-90ties, there was a shift away from animal fats to vegetable. Burgerking held on to fractionated animal fats for a long time (and perhaps still use beef oleo in some countries), I think mainly due to the more crispy fries and slightly different taste obtained, but this oil source is limited and also quite expensive compared to the alternatives. And yes, the animal origin was also seen as a problem within the industry. Non-trans vegetable frying fats can be produced from liquid oil by chemically altering the fats (interesterifying blends of fully hydrogenated and liquid oils, or by fractionation of mainly palm oil). So the choice is between pest or cholera...

Thailand is one of the large palm oil producers and has a large net export of palm products, so it is odd that temporary import is now required to cover domestic consumption... However, the Thai market is highly regulated, fixing prices on the palm fruits and on some of the oil products found in retail. This, together with the export tax policy by the 2 biggest producers Indonesia and Malaysia, can easily lead to a situation where simultaneous import of crude oil and export of refined oil takes place (among other factors it's a matter of utilizing domestic refining capacity).

The problem is that the Thai government is directing details, that should be taken care of by the market players, instead of just defining the frame work. And that's the situation for almost every industry in Thailand - this country is indeed highly regulated and these regulations (implemented via a broad palette of instrument like incentives, limitations by licenses, etc) is the very fundament for corruption. The only way to get rid of the significant corruption in this country (here I don't address the petty money collected by police at the car window) is to remove the corruption basis - you get nowhere trying to forbid or even punish the discovered incidents. So the way forward is change the business conditions in direction of free market and impose only transparent frame work conditions.

[Bangkok Herps]

Why is it they focus on palm oil. Oil can be made from rice....and there is plenty of rice at the moment. Maybe they need to refocus!

That is almost like asking why do we need chicken meat when pork meat is available. Yea it would work but what of all the people who prefer chicken. Not sure I can tell you what rice oil tastes like or how compatible it would be to palm oil but it would be a grain and palm is a vegetable based oil.

I don't remember all the details of the change but remember McDonalds changed the oil they used to make their fries ... if I recall it was early 2000s and they went from an oil with animal fat to a vegetable oil because of some issue with false advertising or something because they promoted the fries as vegetarian ... again not sure if I have the details right but bottom line the fries IMO are not nearly as good and addicting as they used to be (thankfully).

I am not sure why Palm oil is so popular but know a lot of people knock it for health reasons. Found this link that shows a little of just how popular palm oil is worldwide ... http://www.save-wildlife.com/en/our-work/save-the-forests/rainforest-deforestation-for-palm-oil-in-cameroon/why-is-palm-oil-so-popular

Like bggg says - Palm Oil is a horrificly destructive product for the environment. There's little more that you can buy that screams "rainforests were destroyed to bring you this" more than palm oil does.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/harvesting-palm-oil-and-rainforests/

http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0509-obama-palm-oil.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthpicturegalleries/8296131/Rainforest-is-destroyed-for-palm-oil-plantations-on-Malaysias-island-state-of-Sarawak.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/orangutans-fight-for-survival

It is true that oil palms produce oil more densely than some other oil crops. It is also true that they tend to be grown in areas with the most sensitive ecosystems, and only via the complete destruction of those ecosystems.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Bangkok Herps

[natway09]

An informative reply "getting older" aren't we all.

Next year with Asean in effect Malaysia can dump as much palm oil into Thailand as it wants can't it?

For the car OK, to cook in No way

[Bangkok Herps]

"As Figure 2 (p. 3) shows, oil palm plantations worldwide take up 40.6 million acres (16.4 million hectares)—a total area greater than the U.S. state of Georgia (FAO 2013). Approximately 85 percent of palm oil is grown in Indonesia and Malaysia, much of it at the expense of forests. This destruction is devastating for local animals and plants, as well as local peoples who rely on these ecosystems for food and their livelihoods. Areas in Southeast Asia at risk of deforestation serve as a habitat for the Sumatran orangutan, elephant, and tiger, all of which are critically endangered, as well as for the endangered Bornean orangutan and pygmy elephant, among numerous other species. Many of these forest species are found nowhere else on Earth, and only about 15 percent of them can also survive in oil palm plantations (Fitzherbert et al. 2008).

When tropical forests are cleared to make way for oil palm plantations, carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas that is the leading cause of global warming; tropical deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of total global warming emissions (UCS 2013). But precisely because tropical forests store large amounts of carbon—both in primary (old-growth) forests and secondary (disturbed and regenerating) forests—it is important to protect these lands from oil palm development.

Emissions due just to oil palm cultivation in Indonesia accounted for an estimated 2 to 9 percent of all tropical land use emissions from 2000 to 2010 (Carlson and Curran 2013). Indonesia was the world’s seventh-largest emitter of global warming pollution in 2009, and deforestation accounted for about 30 percent of these emissions (WRI 2013). Indeed, for that same year Indonesia ranked second (behind Brazil) in the amount of global warming pollution it produced because of deforestation (WRI 2013)."

http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/palm-oil-and-global-warming.pdf

Right now new palm oil plantations are the leading cause of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia both.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Bangkok Herps

[wabothai]

Yep when nobody is to be trusted, conspiracy theorists have a ball.

[Commerce]

"As Figure 2 (p. 3) shows, oil palm plantations worldwide take up 40.6 million acres (16.4 million hectares)—a total area greater than the U.S. state of Georgia (FAO 2013). Approximately 85 percent of palm oil is grown in Indonesia and Malaysia, much of it at the expense of forests. This destruction is devastating for local animals and plants, as well as local peoples who rely on these ecosystems for food and their livelihoods. Areas in Southeast Asia at risk of deforestation serve as a habitat for the Sumatran orangutan, elephant, and tiger, all of which are critically endangered, as well as for the endangered Bornean orangutan and pygmy elephant, among numerous other species. Many of these forest species are found nowhere else on Earth, and only about 15 percent of them can also survive in oil palm plantations (Fitzherbert et al. 2008).

When tropical forests are cleared to make way for oil palm plantations, carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas that is the leading cause of global warming; tropical deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of total global warming emissions (UCS 2013). But precisely because tropical forests store large amounts of carbon—both in primary (old-growth) forests and secondary (disturbed and regenerating) forests—it is important to protect these lands from oil palm development.

Emissions due just to oil palm cultivation in Indonesia accounted for an estimated 2 to 9 percent of all tropical land use emissions from 2000 to 2010 (Carlson and Curran 2013). Indonesia was the world’s seventh-largest emitter of global warming pollution in 2009, and deforestation accounted for about 30 percent of these emissions (WRI 2013). Indeed, for that same year Indonesia ranked second (behind Brazil) in the amount of global warming pollution it produced because of deforestation (WRI 2013)."

http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/palm-oil-and-global-warming.pdf

Right now new palm oil plantations are the leading cause of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia both.

"Approximately 85 percent of palm oil is grown in Indonesia and Malaysia, much of it at the expense of forests."

Interesting fact that these areas also experience some of the worst rainfalls and other related problems in comparison to other global bases. Why? Because their land masses are small when compared to other areas, and these can't cope in the rising of resultant gases, etc. What bothers me is that their complacent butcherism affects local and neighbouring countries accordingly, and none of these countries seem to give a damn, even with the arrival of so called ASEAN agreements!

[GettingOlder]

I believe there is wide consensus about the damage the rapid increase of oil palm plantations have done to "competing usage" like natural rainforest etc. However, one has to consider the BA kground and also the alternatives before condemning the activities in this region.

It it the Western world who has created a huge increase in triglyceride demand. A large add-on demand came from implementating mandatory blending biodiesel into fuel which in "first generation" was made out of edible oils (now starting using non-food oils).

If it was soybean and not palm oil covering this demand increase, u can just imagine how the 2 major soybean producers USA and Argentina would look like - endless fields of soy as the required area would be 10 times larger than for palm. But which crops should give way?

Do not blame this region taking up the business opportunity, "cashing in" some natural land - which the Western world has already done to the outmost extend so that no further significant expansion is possible. You cannot prevent the newcomers from gaining wealth the same way as we did, but hopefully they could learn from our mistakes...

The Round table of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), initiated by leading global food companies, had a slow start by this and similar initiatives are gaining momentum, so in 2015 my guess is that the majority of exported oil will be produced by companies complying to these strict criteria. The local consumption is however lacking behind - I can't imagine a business man of Chinese descent agree to pay a sustainability premium unless its mandatory by law :-)

The carbon seggrestation of an oil palm plantation is on par with natural rainforest, but as the palm fruit bunches, which is a significant part of the produced biomass, are removed from the area, the carbon foot print of that particular area is less than of rainforest which has zero footprint averaged over time. The oil palm plantation has the greatest net intake of carbon compared to all other uses.

During the area expansion period, the one-time conversion from forest to plantation surely can significantly contribute emission although I can't accept the BKK Herps selection of figures of how much the contribution has been. To get an overview of which/where are the big contributors, just look at the net consumption of non-nuclear energy, since no technology for carbon recovery from exhaust has yet been implemented. Again, the Western world is leading with US in clear top although China is catching up fast (as country but not as per capita).

The favorite way to convert forest to plantation was to burn off the whole lot, polluting the whole region with smoke. Where were/is the governments regulations and enforcements, securing best possible transition measured by society and not by the individual company? There are other ways than uncritical burning...

[halloween]

"Approximately 85 percent of palm oil is grown in Indonesia and Malaysia, much of it at the expense of forests."

Interesting fact that these areas also experience some of the worst rainfalls and other related problems in comparison to other global bases. Why? Because their land masses are small when compared to other areas, and these can't cope in the rising of resultant gases, etc. What bothers me is that their complacent butcherism affects local and neighbouring countries accordingly, and none of these countries seem to give a damn, even with the arrival of so called ASEAN agreements!

You will have to pardon me, I have a serious sensitivity to pseudo-science BS. Could you explain to me what "worst rainfalls" means - too much, too little? Then you can start on the obscure drivel about "land masses are too small" (Borneo??) and how they can't cope with the 'resultant gases"? Oxygen and carbon dioxide are the result of photosynthesis, AFAIK nobody has a major problem with either, except maybe from the burning of fossil fuels, which biofuel is supposed to reduce.

[maidee]

did anyone do the math ? that is 30.000 baht per tonne, for raw palm

[rickirs]

I notice 5,000-10,000 metric tons per month of palm oil is available through alibaba.com, some of which appears to come from Thai suppliers !

Is there really a shortage?

[Toknarok]

I know nothing about growing palm oil but Google is your friend. Apparently it takes about 3 years before you can begin harvesting a crop. That is about half what it takes (or less) for a rubber tree to mature. I tend to agree with Kwaibah, rip out the rubber and plant oil palms. The original forest with it's flora and fauna was destroyed long ago for rice paddies. Would the Isaan rubber farmer be prepared to wait another 3 years, who knows? then you may have the problem that if everyone got onto the bandwagon (a la rubber) you might have a glut. Thank goodness I'm not a farmer.