• Bloomberg reported that trans fats is finally being pushed out in favour of healthier alternatives. In 2015, US Food and Drug Administration announced that food makers had three years to completely remove trans fats from their products. This implies that trans fat will be banned in 2018F.
• Although palm oil would benefit from the ban on trans fats in the US, American agriculture companies are coming out with other vegetable oils, which are free from trans fats. Non-GMO Omega-9 canola oil from Dow Chemical Co has lower levels of saturated fats than olive oil but same level of Omega-9 fatty acids. Monsanto is planning to launch its own soybean oil, Vistive Gold, which has a high Omega-9 count, low saturated fats and better stability than the standard soybean oil.

• It was also reported that Malaysia is committed to maintaining a forest coverage of 50%. A government official said that the EU resolution on palm oil as the single cause to deforestation, is not fair. He added that Malaysia is confident that the information on palm oil given to the EU will be taken into account when the final resolution is drafted.

• Reuters said that after nearly seven weeks as bulls, speculators have turned bearish on grains as heavy inventory and non-threatening weather for US crops keep the lid on prices. Last week, market participants were focused on the US Midwest Crop Tour, which scouted corn and soybean fields in the top seven US crop states. The results were generally seen as bearish.

• According to Indonesia Investments, about 306 ISPO (Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil) certificates have been granted to 304 Indonesian oil palm companies, one plasma farming association and one farmer selfhelp cooperative as at 29 August 2017. So far, an area of 1.9mil hectares of oil palm plantations, which can produce up to 8.2mil tonnes of CPO, have been certified under the ISPO scheme.

• Agrimoney.com reported that MP Evans has purchased a plantation in Indonesia for US$108mil. MP Evans faces the prospects of fresh interest from Kuala Lumpur Kepong when the moratorium expires in December 2017. According to press reports, MP Evans has agreed to buy 8,240 hectares of land in East Kalimantan, which are held under the "renewable" 35-year licence. About 7,400 hectares are young oil palms that were planted between 2012 and 2016 while another 400 hectares are in the course of being planted. MP Evans is paying US$88mil cash and assuming debt of US$20mil for the company, which owns the land. The EV translates to about US$13,200/planted hectare.

• SGS and Intertek said that Malaysia's palm oil shipments fell by 8.4% and 8.1% in the first 25 days of August vs. the same period in July. According to SGS, China's palm oil imports shrank by 20.6% while palm exports to the EU declined by 42.3%. On a positive note, palm exports to India rose by 10.5%. Intertek said that RBD palm olein accounted for 35.9% of Malaysia's palm oil shipments in the first 20 days of August while crude palm oil made up another 15.1%.

Source: AmInvest Research - 5 Sept 2017