RI falls short of oil palm seedling demand

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia fell short of the demand for oil palm seedlings by 10 million seedlings last year as domestic supplies totaled only 60 million, while the national demand reached 70 million, said Kabul Pamin, head of the North Sumatra based Palm Oil Research Center (PPKS).

The shortage of seedlings was caused by the large expansion of oil palm estates, Kabul said during a hearing with the City Council's economic commission in Medan, North Sumatra.

"The seedling supply growth has always been surpassed by the rate of oil palm plantation expansion," he was quoted by Kompas daily as saying Thursday.

The country has only three producers of certified oil palm seedlings. They are PPKS, PT PP London Sumatera and PT Socfin.

PPKS produced about 463 million seedlings between 1971 and 1996, 130 million of which were distributed to plantations owned by local farmers, he said.

Last year alone, PPKS supplied about 40 million seedlings.

Kabul said the shortage of certified seedlings had opened opportunities to sellers of uncertified seedlings.

Fraudulent or uncertified seedlings especially harm smallholders who do not have the expertise to verify seedling standards, Kabul said.

He said the yield of plantations in which uncertified seedlings were planted was very low because the trees grew very slowly and were highly vulnerable to disease. (02)