ZENECA raises investment

JAKARTA (JP): PT ZENECA Agri Products Indonesia, a subsidiary of the British ZENECA pesticide producer, will spend Rp 22 billion (US$9.3 million) to increase the capacity of its factory in Gunung Putri, Bogor.

"The new facilities are scheduled to be operational between March and April," company manager Sobar Pradja said Friday during an agriculture workshop in Cisarua, Bogor.

The new facilities will allow the company to make 20 tons of each of its products daily, he said. Now it can make eight to 12 tons daily.

The company has about 20 products, including herbicides like Agroxone, Maestro, Gramoxone, Para-col, Reflex, Touchdown and insecticides like Agrathion, Ambush, Atabron, Bancol, Cymbush, and Matador.

Sobar said the company would announce big expansion plans soon but refused to elaborate.

"What we are now doing at our factory in Bogor is only a small part of our big expansion plan," he said.

The company's most popular products are Gramoxone and Para- col, which are widely used in the tidal area of South Kalimantan where the government is opening 1 million hectares of rise fields

About 4 million liters of these products were sold last year.

Both herbicides make clearing weeds easier, Sobar said. (jsk)