BIO FUELS, INTERNATIONALLY CURRENT TOPIC

Due to the growing interest towards the well being of our nature and the use of bio fuels, the farming of oil palms has expanded rapidly during the last years. Because of its effectiveness in several areas, palm oil is widely seen as an important material when developing more environmental friendly options for current and future energy creation.

For example European Union which is at the moment the biggest buyer of palm oil has set a goal for all the member countries to increase the total use of bio fuels significantly in the near future.

Still only a small percentage of all imported palm oil is used in traffic.

Year 2007 in European Union 97% of all the imported palm oil was used in cosmetics, food and energy industry and only 3% in traffic. (European Biodiesel Board)

The amount of imported palm oil into Europe has more than doubled during the last ten years and year 2006 a total of 38 million tons of palm oil was imported into the European countries. The total amount has from that point grown substantially during 2007.

Regarding these goals and directives of the European Union there are also several major tax advantages that are already set for bio fuels and the bio fuel industry to support the companies to expand their capacities in Europe.

This growing market has created a strong financial opportunity for investors and therefore many of the current farming areas are financed by European investment banks.

In the future the European Union will focus more on the origin of palm oil as well as on the production methods that are being used. This will result in more ecological operation patterns regarding farming of oil palms and production of palm oil. ECOil Group is also taking its responsibility in these areas and is constantly developing the methods used by the company.