GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – The provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato, along with this city, are being eyed as expansion areas for palm oil plantations as the country continues to depend on imports to satisfy domestic demand.
Alfredo Montecillo, president of the Philippine Palmoil Development Council, said the country has been consuming about 100,000 metric tons of palm oil per year but only about 30 percent has been coming from domestic production.
“Seventy percent of the supply was still being imported either from Malaysia or Indonesia. The Philippines is still a net importer of palm oil,” Montecillo said.
“We need about 100,000 metric tons of palm oil annually but only 30 percent of that or even less is supplied domestically,” he added.
Montecillo said the lack of areas planted to oil palm has been the main reason why domestic production could not satisfy the domestic demand for palm oil.
The good news, however, is that many Mindanao areas are conducive for oil palm plantations such as Sarangani, South Cotabato and this city, according to Montecillo.
In Sarangani for example, he said the PPDC had already conducted surveys and found out that its potential to host oil palm plantation was “very big.”
“There are many areas there that can be developed although the topography is a challenge because majority of the areas are really mountainous,” he said.
Milbie Daguro, the Sarangani investment officer, said at least 20,000 hectares of land have been declared suitable for oil palm production in the province.
However, some of the identified areas have existing crops.
Daguro said what the Sarangani government and potential investors were targeting were idle lands in the province.
Daguro several investors were also willing to put up palm oil processing plants in Sarangani if the oil palm areas there reach 5,000-10,000 hectares.
In South Cotabato, the most viable for palm oil are the areas in and Tantangan town, according to Montecillo.
He said the possibility of expanding oil palm areas here and in the provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato would be one of the agenda of the two-day National Palm Oil Congress to be held here starting Wednesday (August 19), which would be attended by some 600 farmers and industry players from various parts of the country.
Montecillo said speakers from Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have been invited to share the recent techniques they learned in managing oil palm farms. (Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao)