26th Jun 2019 14:12
(Alliance News) - Equatorial Palm Oil PLC on Wednesday said it intends to cease its Butaw estate operations and focus on Palm Bay estate, where production doubled in the year-to-date.
The AIM-listed company said fresh fruit bunches harvested in Palm Bay estate, Liberia, in the past three months have increased to in excess of 4,000 metric tonnes per month from 2,000 tonnes.
This improvement is a result of the training that has been provided to the harvesters and the ease to harvest during the dry season, Equatorial Palm Oil explained.
However, the palm oil development and production company noted that in the next few months it expects a slight decrease in production of fresh fruit bunches in Palm Bay estate as the wet season is approaching.
Meanwhile, in the Butaw estate, also in Liberia, to-date only 1,418 hectares have been planted out of a total concession area of 8,011 hectares, the company said.
Back in May, the company undertook a strategic review of its Butaw estate operations and reached a conclusion to scale down these operations. Recent assessments have shown Butaw estate to have insufficient plantable area, therefore making it neither economic nor sustainable to build a long-term oil palm business, Equatorial Palm Oil explained.
"We are disappointed that we have had to downsize our operations at Butaw estate and let go of so many workers in an area with no other economic activity or job prospects," said Executive Director Geoffrey Brown.
Equatorial Palm Oil shares were trading 7.7% lower on Wednesday at 0.85 pence each.
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