Thursday February 17, 2005 - SPOOKED by India's decision on Tuesday toraise import tax on crude palm oil (CPO), refined, bleached and deodorise(rbd) palm oil and palm olein, and the continued rise in palm oil stocks,research houses have turned bearish on the plantation sector.

2/15/2005 MANILA - The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) isprojecting an upswing in demand this year for coconut and its by-productsboth in the local and export market.

2/15/2005 - A major intergovernmental meeting on food safety and qualityin the fats and oils food sector is being organised in London by the FoodsStandards Agency.

Mumbai , Feb. 15 - THE effect on consumer prices in view of thesimultaneous action of hike in duty together with reduction in tariffvalues on palm group of oils is unlikely to be harsh. Open market pricescould improve by a modest Rs 600 a tonne.

KLANG, Feb 15 (Bernama) -- Plantations company, Golden Hope PlantationsBhd is planning on increasing its hectarage of oil palm plantations inKalimantan, Indonesia to 50,000 hectares in the near future, its groupchief executive Datuk Sabri Ahmad said.

New Delhi, Feb 15 (PTI) The government today hiked customs duty on crudepalm oils by 15 per cent and lowered their tariff values from 54 to 74dollars per tonne following the fall in global prices of the edible oil.Customs duty on crude palm oil and its fractions was increased from 65 percent to 80 per cent and on other palm oils from 75 to 90 per cent, anofficial release said today.

2/15/05--India cuts crude palm oil base import price to $400/tn vs $454

2/15/05- The Indian government Tuesday cut the base prices for palm oiland palm olein, from which import taxes are calculated, but raised theirimport duties, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

(Dow Jones)--BMD trader says MPOB estimate showing a 1.8% rise inend-January stocks "slightly bearish" for prices as the market wasexpecting stocks to fall. "Besides, there is now talk that Februaryproduction may not drop as much as the 20% predicted by some, which meansthere will be further buildup in stocks this month," he says. All thesefactors point to revival of pressure on prices. Benchmark May contract nowat MYR1,315/ton, down MYR16/ton from Monday's close.Malaysia's palm oil exports in January fell 12% on month to 995,345 metrictons, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said Tuesday.MPOB said January palm oil output also fell 12% on month, to 1.15 milliontons, while end-January stocks rose 1.8% on month to 1.52 million tons.Traders said the figures were mostly in line with market expectations.Last week, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, a lobby group of bigplantation companies, had estimated a 13% drop in January production.The following are details of the January crop data issued by the MalaysianPalm Oil Board:

Saturday, February 12, 2005 Jakarta - Indonesia has lifted the import dutyon stearic acid from China as part of the Southeast Asian free tradeagreement with the country, the Ministry of Finance announced on Friday.