The Sindh government announced on Wednesday the successful completion of its ground-breaking pilot project to extract palm oil from the indigenous plantation of oil palm trees in the Thatta district.
It said the pilot project successfully completed by its Environment and Coastal Development Department had shown that the coastal strip of the country had the capability of growing oil palm trees.
Environment and Coastal Development Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab visited the newly established mill in the Ghulamullah Town of Thatta for extracting palm oil from the nearby oil palm tree plantation in the district.
According to Barrister Wahab, the country by doing indigenous production of palm oil would be able to save up to four billion dollars annually, which were otherwise being constantly spent on the imports of the precious edible commodity.
He said the oil palm tree plantation and palm oil production on indigenous basis were a game-changer project of the Sindh government. He said the pilot project was capable of producing two tonnes of palm oil on a daily basis.
He said the government had undertaken the pilot project to grow oil palm trees on 50 acres of land in the Kahtore area of Thatta. He said that after the successful completion of the pilot project, oil palm trees would now be grown on 1500 acres.
He appreciated the services and hard work of officials and staffers of Environment and Coastal Development Department for successfully completing the project of palm oil production in the province.
He said this was the very first time any palm oil extraction mill had been successfully installed anywhere in Pakistan as people of the entire country deserved congratulation for the completion of this project. He said the unit of palm oil production had been imported from China.
He said the indigenous production of palm oil would bring in massive investment in Thatta for job creation for the local people.
Barrister Wahab said the completion of the palm oil production project was another project of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government like Thar coal extraction to serve the people in the best manner.
