State palm oil mills inefficient: Expert

State palm oil mills inefficient: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned palm oil mills are inefficient because they employ obsolete technology, claims an industry expert.

"State plantation companies usually use machines made in 1908, which creates inefficiency and additional unnecessary costs of around Rp 500 million (around US$200,000) for every plant with a capacity of 30 tons of fresh fruit per hour," Takal Barus, a senior researcher at the Palm Oil Center in Medan, North Sumatra, said yesterday.

Barus told Antara that the 1908 technology, which uses a boiler system that produces a 250 degree Celsius temperature, can no longer cope with the latest developments in the industry.

No state palm oil mills executives were available for confirmation yesterday.

Indonesia is the second biggest crude palm oil (CPO) producer in the world after Malaysia.

Official figures indicate that total palm oil plantation areas reached 1.60 million hectares in 1993. State companies controlled about 395,700 hectares, private domestic and foreign investors 697,008 hectares and farmers the remaining 510,400 hectares.

Barus suggested that state palm oil plantation companies replace their supposedly obsolete machinery with boiler systems that can produce a temperature of 320 degrees Celsius.

Barus also claimed that he is the inventor of the more modern boiler system. (hdj)