State farming firms' pretax profits tumble

JAKARTA (JP): Two groups of state firms overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture last year suffered a drop in pretax profits due to poor production, unsound marketing and unfavorable weather, an official says.

Ministry Secretary General Soetatwo Hadiwigeno said yesterday the profits of seasonal-crop and non-plantation state firms last year dropped by 19.9 and 236.5 percent respectively.

The profits of seasonal-crop firms dropped from Rp 102.36 billion (US$44.50 million) in 1994 to Rp 81.95 billion last year, while the group of non-plantation firms suffered a loss of Rp 4.07 billion last year after reaping a profit of Rp 2.98 billion in 1994.

Plantation firms consist of companies managing annual-crops and seasonal-crops, while non-plantation firms are those falling outside these categories.

The Ministry of Agriculture currently manages 14 state plantation companies, namely PT Perkebunan Nusantara I through to XIV.

Last year the companies had not been merged and there were still 32 firms -- PT Perkebunan I through to XXXII -- each of which managed its own financial reports.

The government also oversees nine non-plantation firms: six fishery companies (PT Usaha Mina, PT Tirta Raya Mina, PT PS Besar, PT Perikani, Perum Perikanan Maluku and Perum PP Samudera); one animal husbandry firm (PT BM Ternak); and two food-crop firms (PT Pertani and Perum Sang Hyang Seri).

Soetatwo said that among the state firms which recorded losses last year were Usaha Mina (Rp 5.7 billion in losses), Tirta Raya Mina (Rp 828 million), Pertani (Rp 313 million), former PTP X (Rp 35 billion), former PTP XV and XVI (a combined loss of Rp 3.9 billion) and former PTP XX (Rp 7.2 billion).

Despite the decline in profits for some categories, Soetatwo said the combined profits of all the ministry's state firms last year increased by 48.1 percent, reaching Rp 776.1 billion.

He said the increase came from annual-crop firms whose profits went up 66.75 percent from Rp 418.7 billion in 1994 to Rp 698.2 billion last year, reported Antara.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Agriculture projected its non-plantation firms to reap Rp 8.2 billion in profits and its plantation firms, Rp 523.3 billion.

Thus by the end of this year, it was expected that agricultural state firms would have a combined pretax profit of at least Rp 532.5 billion. (pwn)