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)