Farmers supply 40% of Astra's CPO output

Farmers supply 40% of Astra's CPO output

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed plantation company PT Astra Argo
Lestari said yesterday that almost 40 percent of its crude palm
oil (CPO) production came from its local farmer partners.

Astra Argo president Benny Subianto said yesterday
smallholders who owned and cultivated 36,000 hectares of oil palm
plantations under its extension service program contributed 35 to
40 percent of the company's total fresh fruit bunch production.

"In the first semester, 96,000 hectares of our plantation area
had begun to produce and 36,000 hectares of it was land in the
nucleus smallholder programs which we started in 1986," Benny
said.

The farmers working under Astra's plantation extension service
program are mostly migrants from densely populated areas in Java
and Bali, all of whom moved under the government's transmigration
program.

Benny said Astra was currently preparing an additional 9,000
hectares of oil palm plantations under a similar nucleus farming
scheme involving smallholders.

"We already planted about 4,000 hectares in the first semester
this year," he said.

Benny said the company's oil palm plantations throughout the
country covered 180,000 hectares, up from 177,000 hectares at the
end of last year.

Astra produced 96,485 metric tons of CPO in the first semester
of this year, 91,185 tons of which were sold locally

"Only about 5 percent of our total CPO production, or about
5,300 tons, was exported," Benny said, adding that last year it
also exported only 12,500 tons of its total output of 254,000
tons last year.

Astra at present owns 12 CPO processing factories in several
provinces capable of processing 447 tons of fresh fruit bunches
every hour.

Astra also owns a cooking oil refinery in North Sumatra, which
produced 3,500 tons in this year's first semester, all sold
locally, Benny added.

Benny said palm oil production contributed 90 percent of the
company's total revenue, while the remaining 10 percent came from
sales of tea, cocoa and rubber.

He estimated the country's CPO production would reach six
million tons, compared to the estimated domestic demand of only
three million tons. (das)