RI to keep auction yard for tobacco in Bremen

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will maintain the Bremen tobacco auction yard in Germany despite a supply laggard, Director General of Plantations A.R. Tondok said here on Saturday.

Tondok said he had received a letter from the agency for overseas tobacco marketing and supervision that it would hold tobacco auctions in Bremen starting next month.

"We have no plans to close down our tobacco auction yard in Bremen as it remains our backbone to thrust into the European tobacco market," Tondok said, reported Antara.

It was rumored that Indonesia would close down the market because of a downturn in domestic tobacco outputs resulting from prolonged rainy seasons during the last two years.

Indonesian tobacco auctioned in the Bremen market is mainly from North Sumatra, known as Deli tobacco, and Java, especially from Central Java and East Java.

Deli tobacco is well-known for its aroma and is used mostly to produce cigars.

Tondok said tobacco productions from North Sumatra and East Java have been recovering and the agency plans to hold three auctions during June and July.

The first auction would be on June 15 for Deli tobacco, the second on July 2 for Java tobacco and the third on July 3 for Deli tobacco.

State-owned plantation firm PTP II, which produces Deli tobacco, said it will auction 860.4 tons of tobacco in Bremen this year. This volume will be maintained until 1999.

Besides the auctions, the company also conducts direct selling to consumers. It has estimated it will dispatch 319.6 tons of tobacco a year up to 1999 through direct selling.

Unlike in North Sumatra, most tobacco in East Java and Central Java is grown by farmers. Farmers then sell their tobacco to the state-owned plantation firm PTP X in East Java, which then exports it or sells it to cigarette manufacturers.

East Java and Central Java are home to dozens of cigarettes manufacturers, including PT Gudang Garam in Kediri, PT HM Sampoerna in Surabaya -- all in East Java -- and PT Djarum in Kudus, Central Java.

Ghozali, head of the plantation agency at Bojonegoro, East Java, said tobacco harvests in the regency would be good this year, producing some 13 tons of Voor Oost tobacco from 17,250 hectares of farmers' tobacco plantations. (rid)