Monagro Kimia to export 40% of its production

JAKARTA (JP): Herbicide and pesticide producer PT Monagro Kimia announced on Tuesday that it planned to export 23 million liters, or 40 percent, of its production this year.

The company's country sales manager, Tommy Sutomo, said this year's export volume would increase 25 percent from 18.5 million liters last year.

"The export increase is due to the company's increased production capacity. We are exporting to Japan, Thailand, South Korea, China and Australia," Tommy said after a ceremony marking the completion of the company's production expansion project.

PT Monagro Kimia is wholly owned by U.S. giant chemical company Monsanto Co. The company, which began operating in Indonesia in 1987, produces popular herbicides and pesticides such as Polaris, Roundup and Spark, which can be used for rice and hard crops.

The company injected US$4.4 million in 1997 to boost its production capacity.

Tommy said the company's total sales this year were expected to drop 20 percent due to a decline in local demand.

"We saw a decline of about 50 percent in the January to April period this year. But starting in May, our sales improved again due to increasing international prices of estate crops such as cocoa, coffee and palm oil," he said.

Tommy said increases in the cost of raw materials since last year had forced the company to raise the price of its products.

Company sales should recover by the beginning of next year due to the government's new policies aimed at helping farmers to boost the country's production of agricultural commodities, he said.

At the ceremony, Monagro donated 20 tons of Polaris herbicide worth Rp 600 million and $20,000 in cash to Minister of Agriculture Soleh Solahuddin to be distributed to farmers. (gis)