Univanich Palm Oil Public Company Limited was established on 26th December 1995 as an amalgamation of three of Thailand’s pioneer palm oil companies. The three companies were:

• Thai Oil Palm Industry and Estate Company Limited,
• Siam Palm Oil and Refinery Industry Company Limited,
• Hup Huat Palm Oil Industry Company Limited.

Univanich is one of Thailand's leading producers of crude palm oil ("CPO") and crude palm kernel oil ("PKO"). Palm oils are important ingredients in the manufacture of cooking oils and salad oils, margarines and shortening, snack foods, icecreams, soaps, shampoos and cosmetics. Biodiesel and Biofuels are rapidly expanding new uses of palm oil. A byproduct from the production of PKO is palm kernel cake ("PKC") which is used in animal feeds.

The main features of the Company’s business are as follows :

• Univanich operates oil palm plantations in Krabi and Suratthani Provinces of Southern Thailand, with a planted area in 2008 of 39,058 rai (6,249 hectares) including 4,650 rai (744 hectares) immature area. The first plantations were established in 1969 and replanting of a new generation of palms commenced in 1992. The Company has now achieved a balanced age profile of palms with approximately 4% of the area routinely replanted each year.
• In 2008, the Company’s own plantations produced 17.3% of the fresh fruit bunches (“FFB”) processed by the Companies factories, with 82.7% of FFB being purchased from outgrower farmers. The overall planted area of oil palms in Thailand is expanding rapidly and it is this expansion of small-holder plantings that is fueling the Company’s long-term growth.
• Univanich has three palm oil crushing mills and two palm kernel crushing plants, all located in Krabi Province. In 2008, Univanich factories processed 867,593 tonnes of FFB and 48,051 tonnes of palm kernels (PK).
• Univanich operates a palm oil exporting facility at the deep-water port of Laemphong in Krabi Province. In 2008, by volume, 74.3% of the Company’s sales of crude palm oils were exported to markets in Asia and Europe.
• Univanich operates an Oil Palm Research Centre (OPRC) which is a leader in oil palm research in Thailand. The Company’s advanced palm breeding programme produces high yielding hybrid seeds for our own replanting programme and for sale to oil palm farmers, both locally and overseas. In 2006, Univanich OPRC commissioned Thailand’s first laboratory for oil palm tissue culture. This project is to produce high yielding clonal palms in support of the Company’s oil palm breeding programme.
• Univanich employs 1,134 people and is professionally managed to an international standard established during 15 years of joint venture with Unilever PLC. From 1983 to 1998, when Unilever held a 51% shareholding in Univanich, the business was managed through Unilever’s International Plantations and Plant Science Group, based in Cambridge, UK.
• The Company was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 25th November 2003 under the abbreviation UVAN.

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