Takoradi, May 7, GNA - The Benso Oil Palm Plantation (BOPP) produced a total of 87,066 metric tonnes of palm fruit in 2006 representing nine percent growth over 86,294 in 2005.

Out of this the company extracted 16.485 metric tonnes of crude oil as against 16,012 metric tonnes in 2005.

Mr. Ishmael E. Yamson, the Board Chairman of BOPP, said this at the 2006 annual general meeting of the company on Monday. He said presently, over 50 percent of the plantation is yet to reach maximum yield levels.

Mr. Yamson said the new palm kernel oil mill, which started test runs in July 2005, produced 3,281 metric tonnes of palm kernel oil in 2006 as against 2005 production of 992 metric tonnes.

He said the mill would have done exceedingly well but the power-rationing programme affected its production.

He told the shareholders that in 2006, the company bought 27,622 metric tonnes of fresh fruit at a total cost of 14.8 billion cedis from over 5,000 small rural farmers in the Western and Central regions. Mr. Yamson said as a measure to conserve water and fertilize the plantations, all-empty fruit bunches and palm oil effluent are converted into compost and later applied on the plantations.