InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - To solve palm oil supply deficit, the Government of Vietnam starts focusing to develop palm oil plantations. Actually, palm oil has been planted in the country since 19878 even though it was only for artificial plantations.
Even though there are policies about palm oil introduction and development as the potential and commercial industrial plants, the cultivation is in probation phase. Palm oil has become part of government’s policy for the past five decades. It started in 1962 when President Ho Chi Minh instructed Ministry of Agriculture (now as Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) to research and develop this plant.
In 1967, Vietnam imported palm oil – the Dura from China to be developed in three probation plantations in Thanh Hoa, Hung Yen, and Nghe An Province. In March 1971, palm oil started being planted for research needs in District of Huong Son, Ha Tinh Province.
As InfoSAWIT quoted from Vo Thai Dan from Faculty of Agronomy, Nong Lam University (NLU), City of Ho Chi Minh, on 17 to 19 November 1980, Ministry of Agriculture conducted conference that focused on palm oil in Ha Tinh Province and came to a conclusion that palm oil could be cultivated from Ha Tinh Province to the southern Vietnam.
The conference result was reported to the Prime Minister in 1981, and agreed to start cultivating big scale - palm oil plantations. After that in 1986, the government ordered a project called “The study about palm oil adaptation that grew in southern Vietnam” to the Vegetable Oil Research Institution of Vietnam to develop scientific bases to plan and develop palm oil plantations in the country.
Apart of every available restriction, palm oil cultivation to develop bio-oil is being considered as the option for the Government of Vietnam. On 20 November 2007, the Prime Minister approved a project called “Vegetable Oil Fuel Development in tahun 2015, the vision for 2025”. The project showed that ethanol and vegetable fat from kinds of oil including palm oil, should reach 1,8 million tons to fulfill 5% fuel needs in the country. (T2)
Source: Majalah InfoSAWIT, June 2024
