Agribusiness is 'more attractive'

JAKARTA (JP): The agribusiness sector is expected to be more attractive to investors this year as the sharp depreciation of the rupiah will make farm products more competitive in overseas markets, an official says.

Head of the agribusiness department at the Ministry of Agriculture Ato Soeprapto said the rupiah's sharp fall against the dollar would make the agribusiness sector one of the main foreign exchange earners this year.

"I'm very optimistic that investment in the agribusiness sector in 1998 will glow after seeing a price hike in some agricultural commodities in the international market," he told Antara.

He said the sharp fall in the rupiah's value made Indonesian agricultural products more competitive because earnings were in dollars while costs were in rupiah.

He declined to give further details about total investment in the agribusiness sector last year.

Ato said the state minister of investment had urged businesspeople last year to invest in the agribusiness sector due to its good prospects in the future.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesian exports of major agricultural commodities mostly increased last year, except for rubber whose exports dropped due to a fall in rubber prices.

The data shows that the export value of plantation commodities increased 4.98 percent to US$5.1 billion last year from $4.86 billion in 1996.

The value of fish and fish-product exports increased 9.3 percent last year to $2.05 billion from 1996's figure of $1.89 billion.

The export value of animal husbandry products increased 8.92 percent to $73.3 million last year from $67.3 million in 1996. (gis)