Published on
Wednesday, 22 May 2013 00:00 [ Malaya.com.ph ]
First Pacific
Co. Ltd., mother company of Metro Pacific,
is eyeing 30,000 hectares of agricultural land in Davao oriental for palm oil
production and processing.
Manuel V.
Pangilinan, First Pacific managing director said that Indofood Agri Resources
Ltd. (IndoAgri) has sent a team to Davao Oriental for the land inspection and
assessment.
“It’s making
progress, it’s not as fast as we want to, but I guess the best indicator would
be is that Indofood has sent over a team to Davao Oriental and did the first
look of the potential areas with the help of governer of Davao Oriental,” he
said.
“They are
still assessing whether the areas that might be available for palm oil
plantation will be suitable. So we are
still waiting for the assesment of Indophil for the potential palm oil
plantation,” added Pangilinan.
He said that
assessment of the land in Davao Oriental will be announced during his meeting
with Indofood board member next week in Jakarta.
The executive
said that the 30,000 hectares land is just 10 percent of the area planted to
palm oil by Indofood.
“It’s large
in Philippine standards, but not in global standards,” he said.
In Indonesia,
Indofood’s palm oil plantation is around 240,000 hectares, making it third
largest palm oil company in the world.
Besides
acquisition of palm oil areas, the executive said that they are looking at
establishing a processing plant that would supply both local and export
markets.
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