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.