Indosawit boosts output

JAKARTA (JP): The Indosawit Group plans to double its crude palm oil (CPO) output to one million tons by 2000.

Indosawit president director Goh Ceng Beng said yesterday the rise in production would be due to the company's ongoing expansion program.

He said Indosawit was opening another 92,000 hectare oil palm estate in Central Kalimantan, which was expected to make first harvest by 2000.

Indosawit, the agricultural holding company of Raja Garuda Mas (RGM) International, a business group owned by Sukanto Tanoto, currently operates 108,000 hectares of oil palm estates in 22 locations in North Sumatra and Jambi provinces, with the combined production capacity of 500,000 tons a year.

It also operates 13 CPO-processing facilities in Riau.

Indonesia is the world's second largest producer of CPO after Malaysia with a total production of 4.9 million tons in 1996. Malaysia and Indonesia's CPO output account for 80 percent of the world's total output. (jsk)