TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt to build roads, seaports for Kalimantan palm oil industry
The government is planning to build roads and seaports in Kalimantan to support the local palm oil industry, which has seen rapid growth in production
Change Size
T
he government is planning to build roads and seaports in Kalimantan to support the local palm oil industry, which has seen rapid growth in production.
Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi said he was optimistic that Kalimantan would soon become the country's biggest palm oil producer, topping Sumatra's forecasted production of up to 18 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) this year.
Bayu said Kalimantan had shown its potential in CPO, with a production capacity of 900,000 tons of CPO in 2010 and 2.3 million tons in 2011.
Last year, it produced 3.4 million tons. It is forecasted to produce up to 4.5 million tons this year.
'The oil palms in Kalimantan are still young in age and fruit can therefore be harvested often. Sumatra's oil palms have been repeatedly harvested and many of the plants are aging,' he said.
Considering its current production, he said, by 2020 Kalimantan could surpass Sumatra's CPO production and become the country's top palm oil producer.
According to the Eco-region Management Center, Kalimantan, which is 1.5 times bigger than Java, currently has approximately 10 million hectares of palm plantations.
Producing 28 million tons annually, Indonesia is the world's largest CPO producer, followed by Malaysia with 19.7 million tons and Thailand in third place with 1.7 million tons.
The market price is US$863 per ton. To anticipate growth in Kalimantan's CPO production, Bayu said, the government is considering building infrastructure, including that needed to facilitate exports.
A land export route is necessary for Kalimantan given the area's vast size. It would take too long to take the commodity from different locations to the seaport for export.
West Kalimantan Governor Cornelis has promised that the regional administration will lend support to the central government's plan to build the necessary infrastructure.
Cornelis said the regional administration had spent nearly Rp 1 trillion on building roads over the past five years.
'We have received funds to build more roads and repair damaged ones. We expect to see no more damaged roads in immediate future,' he said.
The governor added that his administration had received a Rp 506 billion loan from the Asia Development Bank (ADB) to repair roads linking the province's capital of Pontianak to Entikong, an area bordering with Malaysia.
Besides building more roads and other infrastructure, the government also established the Nenga Badau Indonesia-Malaysia border gate in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan.
The recent exportation of 60 tons of CPO to Serawak by PT Paramitra Internusa Pratama, a subsidiary of Sinarmas Agribusiness and Food, one of the country's top conglomerates, marked the first export shipment through the gate.
Bayu expected the opening of the country's first land export route in Badau could further boost the economy, both local and national.
'I hope all palm oil producers will invest in education. Thus, hopefully the company can provide at least one scholarship for every 1,000 oil palms it grows. By doing this, the company would be investing in human resources,' he said on the sidelines of the launch of the first CPO export shipment by land at the Badau border gate last week.
