Sunday, 1 January 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :-)

Hey!!!

Hope all you followers saw the new year in with style!! In good spirit following christmas and new year I have decided that I really wanted to reiterate the positives that the palm oil industry brings to many communities and basically say its not all bad!!

  • Employment
    • According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, palm oil plantations directly employ more the 500,000 people, including both Malaysians and foreign workers.
    • Has the ability to bring many out of poverty
  • Many plantations provide amenities for local communities that they may not have had otherwise
    • Housing
    • Water 
    • Electricity
    • Roads
    • Medical Care
    • Schools
  • For some rural communities, palm oil plantations offer the only livelihood
  • Provides a means for people to better their lives by becoming a smallholder
    • Despite expenses and interest payments being extremely high, and causing some smallholders to become debt ridden, the Indonesian Palm Oil  Commission (IPOC) indicates that roughly 98% of all smallholders palm farmers have successful paid off their loans in the past 10 years.
The credibility of the last figure is certainly questionable, is this a case of the IPOC telling us what we want to here rather than the true facts?!

For Malaysia and Indonesia as a whole, palm oil provides a huge income. to which can be reinvested in infrastructure to develop the regions. In turn, improving the overall living standards of Malays and Indonesians.

  • Export value of palm oil stands at approximately US$6.3 billion and US$4.1 billion, for Malaysia and Indonesia respectively (based on 2004 figures)

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