Joint RI-Japan search for low-fat palm oil launched

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian conglomerate PT Bakrie-Brothers has entered into an agreement with Mitsubishi Kasei Corp. of Japan to conduct biotechnological research into a new oil palm variety with a low saturated fatty acid content as a strategic move to counter consumers' attacks on oil palm as a dangerous source of cholesterol.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the planned joint project was signed in Tokyo Wednesday between PT Bakrie-Brothers Chairman and CEO Aburizal Bakrie and Mitsubishi Kasei Corp's president Masdahiko Furukawa.

Indonesian Minister for Research and Technology B.J. Habibie as Chairman of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) also signed the accord.

BPPT will supervise the research project.

Aburizal Bakrie, the originator of the idea to research a new, low-fat oil palm variety through "genetic alteration", told the Antara news agency in Tokyo that if successful the search will not only be profitable for business but also to mankind as it will reduce cholesterol fear from the consumption of palm oil- based cooking oil and margarine.

As a counter to cholesterol-scare campaigns in the United States against palm oil products, the Indonesia-Japan project has farsighted strategic value, Aburizal said.

Mitsubishi's chief researcher Akira Tanaka said the thrust of the project is to discover a new oil palm variety through the process of genetic alteration on existing varieties.

"The expectation is to alter existing varieties so as to produce one that will bear fruit with low fatty acid," Tanaka, manager of the research and development department of Mitsubishi Kasei, the research arm of Mitsubishi Corporation, said.

The Yokohama-based research company had in the past engineered an enhanced rice variety, the Japonica, and an improved rape- seed, also a source of cooking oil like oil palm.

Minister Habibie said BPPT fully supports the research project.

But he cautioned, however, against negative results, citing the case of a similar joint research project between "a neighboring country" and "a large chemical company" which ended in a great failure after seemingly initial success.

The palm oil species developed by the project yielded fruit with low fatty acid but the fruit from the second harvest of the trees using that variety did not contain oil at all, thereby rendering the oil palm trees useless. (02)