FGV says its refineries in Sabah are still operating

KUALA LUMPUR: Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) said its palm oil refineries in Sabah are still in operation.

 

Its Group President/Chief Executive Officer Datuk Sabri Ahmad said only one per cent of its palm oil operations in Sabah has been affected by the Lahad Datu standoff.

FGV owns two refineries in Sabah, including in Felda Sahabat, affected by the standoff.  

"It is confined to certain areas only. The area where there is activity is about 2,000 hectares," Sabri told reporters on the sidelines of the Palm and Lauric Oils Conference & Exhibition: Price Outlook 2013/2014 today.  

Felda Sahabat covers over 2,000 hectares of the 99,000 hectares populated in Felda Sahabat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and has nine mills.  

Sabah is one of Malaysia's top oil palm growing regions with much of the palm oil from the state shipped to China - the world's second largest consumer of edible oils.  

According to a news report quoting Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan, some 1,000 oil palm plantation workers in the area have been granted leave to avoid any undesirable incident.

Some 10,000 other workers were granted leave on Saturday for the same reason.  

Felda Sahabat has a total of 20,000 employees.   

Asked on possible mergers and acquisitions in FGV's downstream division, Sabri said the group is in a due diligence exercise on its rubber processing plant in Myanmar.  

"This is a long process. We have to be careful about where we put our money to make sure that we invest in good assets," he said.  -- BERNAMA