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26/11/2007
PETRONAS LAUNCHES OWN BRAND OF FERTILISER
After more than two decades of producing and supplying granular urea fertiliser to customers in the domestic and export markets, PETRONAS today launched its own brand of the fertiliser to further enhance the customers' confidence in the quality, accessibility and reliability of supply of the product.
With higher customers' confidence, PETRONAS also expects the branding exercise to result in greater usage of its premium quality fertiliser, which will lead to higher crops' productivity and yield. This will in turn support the growth of Malaysia's agriculture sector, in line with the government's emphasis to develop the sector as one of the most important economic generators for the nation.
The PETRONAS urea fertiliser was named "Agrenas" at a ceremony officiated by Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Tan Sri Dato' Seri Muhyiddin Yassin at the PETRONAS Fertilizer (Kedah) Sdn Bhd (PFK)'s premises in Gurun, Kedah today. Also present at the ceremony was PETRONAS' President and CEO Tan Sri Dato Sri Mohd Hassan Marican.
Agrenas is produced by PETRONAS at PFK's Gurun plant as well as at the ASEAN Bintulu Fertilizer Sdn Bhd (ABF) plant in Bintulu, Sarawak. PFK, which has been operating since 1999, is a wholly-owned subsidiary while ABF, in which PETRONAS has a 63.5% interest, has been in operation since 1985.
The two plants have a combined urea production capacity of 1.4 million metric tons per year. About 36 per cent of the output is sold locally, while the balance is exported. PETRONAS markets the product through its subsidiary Malaysian International Trading Corporation Sdn Bhd (MITCO), and currently supplies about 80 per cent of the domestic urea requirement.
PETRONAS' fertiliser business is backed by its Urea Research Programme set up in 1986 which collaborates with agricultural scientists and experts from established institutions and bodies such as the Universiti Putra Malaysia, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, the Malaysian Rubber Board, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, the Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute, the Department of Agriculture, Sarawak, the Federal Land Development Authority and the Federal Land Consolidation & Rehabilitation Authority.
Among the R&D activities undertaken by the Programme is continuous development of improved formulation for best applications of the fertiliser for various crops. This has resulted in a product that is not only of high quality but also applicable to a wider cross section of the plantation sector, as proven via sale to major end users from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the US.
The launch of Agrenas will also see more involvement of PETRONAS in the local fertiliser market, where MITCO's marketing team together with experts from the Urea Research Programme will provide after sales service, product knowledge and technical advice to customers and end users.
In conjunction with the launch of Agrenas, a seminar on urea would also be held at PFK on 27 November. About 250 participants from the fertiliser and related industries are expected to attend this second annual event.
Issued by:
Media Relations Department PETRONAS 26 November 2007
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