NBPOL to diversify due to limited expansion

New Britain Palm Oil (NBPOL) says it is looking into diversifying into other cash crops in the future due to the limited land available for expansion of palm oil.

PNG Country Manager, Robert Nilkare, says though there is opportunity for expansion of palm oil, there is only enough suitable land for a growth of between 22 – 24 per cent.

Nilkare said this when asked about NBPOLS future for the next 50 years during the Australia-PNG Business Council Forum in Port Moresby.

“Papua New Guinea as big as it is, we don’t have land that’s availabel for palm oil planting. You may ask why, simple reason is that under RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Oil) Certification we can’t go into rainforest areas or we can’t go into any of the woodland areas. We can only plant in grassland areas,” Nilkare said.

He added “but basically were very environmentally conscious about how we can expand, which will bascially lead NBPOL into the new direction which is diversification.

“So were looking at palm oil now were looking at coconut oil and possibly coffee and tea later on down into the future, he said.

NBPOL will be celebrating 50 years of operation this year.

And Nilkare has highlighted two important pointers for the celebration.

“First thing is productivity improvement. And productivity improvement comes with spending a lot of time and investment and money in developing a better crop. So there’s a lot of captial expenditure in the research that we do, in terms of improveing the palm, the planting and also the seed production.

“Secondly it would be cost effective low carbon expansion,” he said.

 

 

Loop PNG file pic

Author: 
Cedric Patjole