A PALM oil processing facility will be built in the Mersey docklands in a scheme worth £18m.

London-based New Britain Palm Oils has got the go-ahead to build the plant on a six-acre site near Regent Road, Bootle.

Initially, 28 jobs will be created in two phases but the company said this number could grow as the operation expands.

New Britain will ship the oil from its plantations in Papua, New Guinea, to the Port of Liverpool, from where it will be transported to the new facility.

Director Alan Chaytor told LDP Business the company had considered several dockland sites around the UK but decided Merseyside was the best option. A key factor was an agreement with Tate & Lyle to utilise existing nearby tanker storage capacity.

“We decided on Liverpool because the physical location is ideal,” said Mr Chaytor. “There is the deep water facility here which is ideal for our tankers and the tank storage capacity is also a major advantage. Doing business here has been a very smooth and efficient process.”

Palm Oil is used in thousands of everyday food and non-food products including bread, biscuits, margarine and cosmetic products . It is a vital ingredient of around one in 10 of the products on the supermarket shelves.

Mr Chaytor said the Merseyside site also offered excellent transport links to its major customers, like food producers, across the north of the country.

Palm oil production is a huge global industry, totalling around 45m tonnes every year, of which New Britain produces up to 350,000. It takes its oil from 46,000 hectares of planted palms across Papua New Guinea.