The first commercial small-scale oil palm plantations were introduced to Myanmar in
1926 covering 120 ha. In the 1980’s the European Economic Community and Swiss
government implemented a palm oil project to stimulate growth in the sector. As of
2014 401,813 ha have been allocated and 134,539 ha planted. The government
target is to plant 282,470 ha by 2030. The land is allocated to 44 companies,
comprising 43 local companies and one Foreign Direct Investment. Three foreign
companies have joint-ventures with local companies. Although much land is now
planted, there appears to be significant scope to improve yields with better technical
capacity and planting material. Down-stream, there are five mills owned by three
companies with crude palm oil (CPO) processing capacity varying from 1.5 to 60
tonnes of fresh fruit bunch per hour (Zaw Win, 2014).