Astra Agro to export 75,000 tons of CPO

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed plantation company PT Astra Agro Lestari plans to export 75,000 metric tons of crude palm oil (CPO) this year, or about 25 percent of its total production of 300,000 tons, the company said yesterday.

The company's marketing director, Hasan Tebiono, said export operations would start this month, with a 5,000-ton shipment to be delivered to Singapore this week.

"We plan to export about 25 percent of our CPO this year. We also plan to expand our plantation acreage by 15,000 hectares," he said at a news conference after a company shareholders meeting.

He said the company expected to produce 300,000 tons of CPO this year, up from 254,362 tons in 1997, due to the rapid expansion of its plantation area.

The company produced 196,622 tons of CPO in 1996.

Hasan said Astra Agro originally projected a production of 370,000 tons of CPO this year. That target was revised to 300,000 tons due to the drought caused by the El Nino weather pattern.

The high prices of CPO in the global market will be advantageous to the firm, Hasan said.

CPO sold at $670 per ton on the international market last month, compared to $290 per ton domestically. International CPO prices are expected to decline to $650 per ton in June.

"Although the government imposes a 40 percent export tax on CPO exports, I think we are lucky enough that it lifted the export ban on CPO products," he said.

Under the agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the government lifted its CPO export ban on April 22 and replaced it with an export tax of 40 percent.

Although the international CPO price is predicted to decline in the coming months due to greater supply, the company will not be badly affected, Hasan said.

The company, a plantation subsidiary of publicly listed PT Astra International, also announced that it posted a net profit of Rp 29 billion (US$2.9 million) in the first quarter of this year.

Company president Benny Subianto said he could not give comparative figures, saying that the company only went public in December.

He said the shareholders agreed to a company proposal to pay a final dividend of Rp 37 per share.

Astra Agro booked a 43.1 percent increase in net profit last year to Rp 90.6 billion from Rp 63.3 billion in 1996.

Benny also said the company recorded Rp 459 billion in net sales last year, an increase from Rp 342.1 billion.

Astra Agro expects to record a total of Rp 1 trillion in net sales this year due to projected growth of export sales.

"With increasing CPO allocations for export, we are optimistic of reaching the sales target this year," he said.

Benny said the company was optimistic of performing well this year since it was not burdened by significant foreign exchange debts.

He said the monetary crisis, which has seen the rupiah's value fall 70 percent against the American dollar, had not adversely affected the performance of the company since it generated some of its revenue in dollars.

Astra Agro, listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, operates 39 plantations covering 192,758 hectares, of which 177,976 hectares or 92 percent are for palm oil, while the remaining 14,782 hectares is for rubber, cocoa and tea. (gis)