AAL exports tea to India

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed plantation firm PT Astra Agro Lestari (AAL), a subsidiary of the country's largest automaker PT Astra International, announced Saturday that it had exported nine metric tons of black tea worth US$18,474 to India.

The company said its black tea exports comprised 3.7 tons of Broken Orange Peko (BOP) grade, two tons of Broken Orange Peko Fanning and 3.3 tons of Broken Tea grade. India was chosen as its main market because the country is the world's biggest tea consumer.

The black tea was produced by AAL's tea plantation subsidiary PT Bantar, which currently produces 2.7 tons of tea per day.

The company said that it planned to increase Bantar's production capacity to 4.5 tons per day this year, most of which would be exported.

AAL's estates cover 300,000 hectares in Sumatra, 192,758 hectares of which has been planted with palm oil, rubber, tea and cocoa. Oil palm plantations cover 92 percent of the company plantation area.

The company's net profit jumped 43 percent to Rp 90.6 billion (US$9.06 million) last year from Rp 63.3 billion in 1996.

The company said that the increase in its net profit was mostly due to the increase in the price of crude palm oil last year. (gis)