Oil palm firm gets BOI perks

NAKEEN CORP., a wholly owned subsidiary of A. Brown Energy and Resources Development Inc., got the nod of the Board of Investments for a P174.4-million oil palm plantation in Misamis Oriental.

The project entails the growing and cultivation of oil palm trees on a 600-hectare property in Sitio Tingalan.

This will be in addition to its existing oil palm plantation in Impasugong, Bukidnon, and will complement the crude palm oil and palm kernel oil production business of its parent company.

Nakeen is waiting for the approval of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of its 25-year lease on the land to be planted with oil palm trees, as the land is under the DENR’s Upland Agro-Forestry Program.

The plantation is expected to yield 13,000 metric tons (MT) of fresh fruit bunches a year, all of which will go to A Brown for its oil production operations.

Once operational in January 2014, the plantation will employ 209 people.

Nakeen will use seedlings imported from Thailand and Papua New Guinea, while farm inputs such as fertilizers will be sourced  locally.

Each oil palm tree will start bearing fruits after three years, with fresh fruit bunches weighing an average of 25 kilos. Both the fleshy pulp, or the pericarp, and the seeds, or the kernel, of the palm fruit are rich sources of oil.

From the time of planting, oil palm trees have a life span of 25 years.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said that projects such as this are very timely, considering the strong demand for palm oil, both here and abroad.