Palm oil trading on the net soon

By Alfean Hardy
All palm oil trade will soon be conducted in real time online, a move which will save the oil palm plantation industry up to RM1.57 billion annually, said Oilpalmworld Sdn Bhd managing director John Kuruvilla.
“Cost cutting has long been the focus of the plantations and at the moment trade is done in the conventional manner, by telephone, faxes, and a normal tendering exercise will take three weeks. All these processes will cost you,” he said.
“Electronically, you can do the same things in half a day and you can be anywhere in the world to do the transaction,” he added.
Kuruvilla was speaking to reporters on Aug 9 in Kuala Lumpur at the official opening of Oilpalmworld’s e-Marketplace trading platform. Three years and RM6.2 million in the making, the members-only platform currently has 526 members.
Kuruvilla said the platform could handle e-trading and e-procurement activities as of now.
The portal's members include industry heavyweights Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, the Federal Land Development Authority, Perlis Plantations Bhd and IOI Plantations Bhd.
“Most of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association members are already registered with us and evaluating. They have expressed interest in trading and procurement,” said Kuruvilla.
Asked about the chances of other players like the Guthrie Group and Sime Darby signing on the dotted line, Kuruvilla said the target was to hit 1,000 members by year-end and he was confident the other players would sign on.
He said as part of the membership drive, potential members were given free one-month trial membership. The usual price of membership was RM1,000 per annum, he said.
“We have a business plan put into place and operations should be growing from this month. We are already getting income now and we hope that people will start trading more,” he added.
Aside from charging membership fees for use of the portal, Kuruvilla also said a commission fee of 50 US cents (RM1.88) per tonne was charged, which he said was 50% off the current brokerage fees of US$1 per tonne.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui was very supportive of the portal and encouraged both the private and public sectors to adopt its widespread use.
“Out of the RM63 billion agricultural products exported last year, palm oil accounted for RM29 billion, about 49% of the country’s total agricultural exports,” he said.
“The ministry feels the initiative to launch this oil palm e-market place is a good move that looks forward and keeps pace with the growth of information communication technologies.
“E-trading is K-trading. It’s a natural process of changing from the old ways of trading to the new ways of trading and the ministry is hopeful that such an initiative will be accepted by the industry and will be an accepted norm very soon,” he added.
Chin appealed to the palm oil sector to move at least 10% of all its activities into the electronic platform by the end of the year.
“Once this move is made, slowly but surely the electronic marketplace will grow and become a reality,” he added. (mes)

Source : http://www.theedgedaily.com
09-08-2005:



Palm oil portal launch today

August 9 2005

THE RM16.2 million business-to-business electronic exchange, Oilpalmworld Sdn Bhd, will be launched in Malaysia today.
In a statement released in Kuala Lumpur, managing director John K. Kuruvilla said the portal is expected to provide an e-commerce platform for members to carry out day-to-day business transactions round the clock.“Initial services to be provided are e-trading, e-procurement and market intelligence,” Kuruvilla said.He added that the e-marketplace will create a successful e-community for the global palm oil industry and establish Malaysia as an electronic hub for the industry. Traders, buyers, sellers, plantation owners, refiners, brokers, consultants, equipment manufacturers, fertiliser producers, bankers, insurers and government agencies can benefit from this portal, he said.Oilpalmworld has invested RM6.2 million in the first phase of the portal’s development.The company says it will inject another RM10 million for the second phase of the project. At present, the company has 526 registered users from 59 countries and receives an average of 20,000 hits per day. The portal is accessible at www.oilpalmworld.comOilpalmworld has appointed Tan Sri Abdullah Mohd Tahir as chairman, while M.R. Chandran joins its board of directors.Chandran was instrumental in establishing and then serving as the first chief executive of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association. At present, he also in the council of the Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association.Malaysia is the world’s largest palm oil producer. Indonesia ranks second.



Online trading of palm oil to cut cost, processing time
By ZURINNA RAJA ADAM

August 10 2005

A SHIFT from conventional trading for palm oil industry players to online-based trading and procurement could save the industry up to RM1.57 billion a year and reduce processing time by as much as 70 per cent.
Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said it is timely for the industry to migrate from the conventional method to e-trading.
“The initiative is a positive step for the industry to move along with the development of information and communications technology. We are hopeful for this initiative to be accepted by the industry,” he said yesterday after launching Oilpalmworld Sdn Bhd (OPW) e-Marketplace website in conjunction with Commodity Week 2005.
The e-Marketplace for palm oil is a single platform for the industry to leverage on business-to-business e-commerce functions. It brings buyers, sellers, plantation owners, refiners, traders and brokers worldwide into a single platform.
Managing director John K. Kuruvilla said the portal aims to simplify conventional business processes, improve efficiency and reduce the cost of doing business, especially on procurement.He said a 10 per cent migration of the industry’s current business transaction to e-commerce will save about RM100 million of oil palm trade per annum.Malaysia has 3.88 million ha of plantation area which requires companies spending RM3.6 billion worth of fertiliSers and RM388 million worth of chemicals per year.
“There is a huge gap on improving process efficiency here that OPW hopes to be part off,` he said.
Founded three years ago, the OPW e-Marketplace portal currently gets 20,000 hits a day. To-date it has 526 companies registered as members from 59 countries worldwide and the group targets the number to increase to 1,000 companies by year-end. Fees of RM1,000 per year is charged for members.
At the launch yesterday, OPW also signed an agreement with IBM Malaysia to leverage on the latter’s worldwide “PartnerWorld” programme to help OPW grow its business. Under the agreement, OPW’s e-Marketplace solution will use IBM’s various technologies related to business processes for e-Marketplace portal. (mes)
Source : http://www.btimes.com.my