Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd, a unit of conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd, will further intensify its focus on research and development (R&D) to ensure its future competitiveness as one of the largest palm oil producers in the world.
Senior vice-president 1 for R&D, Khairuddin Hashim, said Sime Darby was supportive of the effort as reflected by the annual allocation of about 2% of the group’s total turnover for both R&D operational and capital expenditures.
“We believe that the future of palm oil production can be managed with conscientious and sustainable practices that are firmly rooted in R&D.
“Cutting-edge R&D and innovative oil palm genome breakthrough by Sime Darby not only play a key role in producing premier green’ palm oil but ensure that sustainability is a primary focus,” he said.
Khairuddin said this after a media visit to Sime Darby’s R&D facilities in Banting and Sime Darby Technology Centre Sdn Bhd’s R&D Quantum Leap in Serdang yesterday.
Key projects under Sime Darby’s R&D include enhancing its superior planting material which consistently ranked among top performers, oil palm genome project, anti-obesity oil or the production of diacyglycerol oil and new product development undertaken at its innovation centres in the Netherlands, South Africa and Johor Baru.
Khairuddin noted that Sime Darby currently had a 40% share, or 24 million oil palm seeds, of the country’s total market, which is a lucrative business for the group.
On the continuous improvement of the core plantation functions, he said: “We are looking at developing a more efficient fertilisation protocol, reducing workload and the use of inorganic fertilisers.”
Sime Darby planned to have 23 composting plants, of which seven had been commissioned, he said, adding that it would use oil palm biomass like empty fruit bunches, palm oil mill effluent and cake decanter as raw materials for composting.
Currently, fertiliser cost represents 30% to 40% of most oil palm plantations’ cost of production.
On biodiesel, he said: “With crude palm oil (CPO) price trading above RM3,000 per tonne, the production of biodiesel is not viable given the high feedstock price.
“We will be looking at developing more new products to support oleochemicals business at our biodiesel plants in Banting and Klang.”
On Sime Darby’s oil palm genome project, head of Quantum Leap Dr Harikrishna Kulaveerasingam said: “We are making progress with our continued efforts to identify and confirm markers for desirable traits to bring multiple benefit to the oil palm sector.”
The traits include higher yields, disease resistance, drought tolerance and salinity resistance.
“These markers have the potential to accelerate the selection of other beneficial traits like identification of superior planting materials and shortening of time required between oil palm generations,” he said.
In 2009, Sime Darby became the world’s first organisation to successfully sequence, assemble and annotate the oil palm genome.
Sime Darby, which produces some 2.4 million tonnes, contributes about 13% of Malaysia’s total palm oil production and 6% of the world’s CPO production annually.
