CPO yield to rise next year

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will produce about 6.3 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) next year, up 5.6 percent from this year's production, the Ministry of Agriculture has predicted.

The Director General of Plantation in the ministry, AR Tondok, said yesterday some oil palm plantations which had not produced this year would harvest next year, boosting the CPO output.

"This year we estimate to produce 5.3 million tons," Tondok was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said the amount did not include plantation companies which had not reported their production.

Overall, he estimated this year's CPO production would reach about 5.68 million tons.

Last year, CPO production totaled 4.95 million tons, higher than the initial projection of 4.78 million tons. The output was a 2.42 percent rise from 4.47 million tons in 1995, he said.

Tondok said most of the areas burned in this year's forest fires, located mostly in Sumatra and Kalimantan, were oil palm plantations.

The fires, which lasted from June to November this year, burned 120,000 hectares, 90,000 of which were plantations, he said.

"Most of the razed plantation areas were oil palm plantations," he said. (das)