Our History

Our expertise in the plantation industry dates back over a century ago with the entrepreneurial vision of one man, Sellam Chetty Kanapathy Chetty, when he ventured to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in the early 1900s from his homeland in south India.

Back over a century ago

The early years

In Sri Lanka, Sellam Chetty carved a niche in the coconut oil and rubber trade. His influence grew quickly and in 1924 he incorporated Sri Krishna Copra & Rubber Mills Ltd. It wasn’t long before the Standard Oil Company of New York offered its first agency in Sri Lanka to Sellam Chetty in 1930.

Gaining momentum

Kanapathy Selvanathan joined his father Sellam Chetty in 1939 and rapidly expanded the business, positioning the company as the largest exporter of coconut oil from Sri Lanka and the leading exporter of rubber and tea. Later in 1961, when the petroleum business was nationalized in Sri Lanka, Kanapathy Selvanathan successfully obtained a petroleum distributorship for the company.

Strategic shift

In 1968, Carson Cumberbatch (CCPLC), a Sri Lankan conglomerate, switched from rubber to oil palm cultivation in Malaysia. Around the same time, Kanapathy Selvanathan’s sons, Manoharan and Hariharan Selvanathan, joined the business and, with their strategic foresight, invested in CCPLC.

Taking control

By the late 1970s, CCPLC completed converting their rubber plantations in Malaysia to oil palm plantations. In 1988, the Selvanathan family took a controlling stake in CCPLC.

Investing in oil palm

In 1996, CCPLC changed its course when oil palm development commenced in Indonesia following the acquisition of the PT Agro Indomas concession in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

The first 90-MT-per-hour mill began operations at PT Agro Indomas in 2000.

In 2004, as the business was growing in Indonesia, the company divested its Malaysian oil palm estate, Bukit Darah, to increase investments in Indonesia. This sale paved the way for the acquisition of 14,000 ha under PT Agro Bukit in Central Kalimantan.

PT Agro Indomas and PT Agro Bukit received RSPO certification in 2006, automatically making Goodhope Asia Holdings a group member under the Oil Palm Grower category of the RSPO.

Goodhope

In 2008, the company as we know it today, Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd., was incorporated in Singapore to consolidate and regionalize the company’s asset base.

By 2010, more than 50,000 ha of the land had been planted. That year, the company commissioned a bulking station with a storage capacity of 10,500 MT in Bagendang Port, Sampit, Indonesia.

The following year, in 2011, Goodhope acquired Premium Vegetable Oils Sdn Bhd and Arani Agro Oil Industries, operating in Malaysia and India, respectively, specializing in the refining and manufacturing of palm oil products.

Driving sustainability

In 2012, PT Agro Indomas received RSPO certification.

Then in 2015, PT Agro Bukit in Central Kalimantan received RSPO certification.

By 2016, four out of the Group’s five mills were RSPO certified when Bukit Santuai Mill at PT Agro Wana Lestari received certification.

In 2017, Goodhope upholds the No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation policy and launched its Sustainability Policy to reflect its strengthened commitments to sustainability.

Accelerating expansion

In 2019, Premium’s downstream sector entered a joint-venture partnership with Japan’s market leader in oils and fats manufacturing, J-Oil Mills.

In 2021, the Group commissioned its eighth palm oil mill, achieving a milestone for the Group as all its crops can now be processed internally ensuring better control over sustainability.

PT Nabire Baru received RSPO certification in 2022. That same year, the Group made a successful strategic exit from Arani Agro Oil Industries in India, to focus on operations in Malaysia and Indonesia.