Commodity producers see no serious damage from current dry spell
Commodity producers see no serious damage from current dry spell
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The producers of four key agricultural commodities -- crude palm
oil (CPO), cocoa, rubber and coffee -- said that the current dry
season was so far little different from other dry seasons, and
that there had been little impact so far on their crops.
"We still see it as a normal dry season, which takes place
between June and August every year," Derom Bangun, chairman of
the Indonesia Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki), told The
Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He predicted that the drought would only cause a slight
decline in CPO output.
Gapki has projected that CPO production this year will reach 9
million tons.
Derom admitted, however, that some CPO plantations had been
hit by the dry spell.
"I've received reports from several CPO producers,
particularly in Riau province, that their production has declined
by 10 percent during the current dry season," said Derom, but
quickly added that production levels in most areas were still
normal.
Indonesia is the world's second largest palm oil producer
after Malaysia.
He made the comments amid reports that the current dry spell
was severely affecting paddy fields in some areas, raising
concern that other crops might also be affected. There has been
speculation that this dry season could develop into a prolonged
drought.
Zulhefi Sikumbang, secretary-general of the Association of
Indonesia Cocoa Exporters (Askindo), said that if the dry season
continued longer than expected, it would definitely affect the
country's cocoa production as cocoa were very sensitive to
changes in weather patterns.
"I predict that if the dry season continues for several
months, cocoa output will drop by 20 percent this year," he told
the Post.
The association had projected that cocoa output would increase
to 400,000 tons this year from 380,000 tons last year.
Indonesia, the world's third largest producer of cocoa after
the Ivory Coast and Ghana, exports most of its crop to the United
States, Singapore, Malaysia and Brazil.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Rubber Association (Gapkindo) said
that the current dry spell would only cause a 5 percent decline
in rubber output.
"We may lose about 5 percent of total production if the dry
spell persists throughout the rest of the year," Suharto
Honggokusumo, the secretary-general of Gapkindo, said.
The association has predicted that output this year will reach
1.5 million tons.
The government is planing to reduce the country's rubber
output by 4 percent and reduce exports by 10 percent this year to
help prop up rubber prices.
Indonesia is the second largest rubber producer in the world
after Thailand.
Rachim Kartabrata, a senior official of the Association of
Indonesian Coffee Exporters (AEKI), voiced a similar prediction,
saying that a prolonged dry spell would wither the flowers on the
coffee bushes, thus causing a decline in the harvest.
The country's coffee output is projected to reach some 420,000
tons this year, far lower than the 480,000 tons recorded in 1997.