Farmers in Sumatra let oil palm fruit rotten as prices fall

Antara 12 Oct 08;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - Thousands of farmers in Rokan Hulu (Rohul) district, Riau province in Sumatra, are now leaving their oil palm fruit unharvested, letting it rotten on the shaft as a result of sharp fall in the prices of the export commodity.

"About 60 percent of farmers who cultivate 118,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Rohul now do not harvest their oil palm fruit as oil palm fruit has now fallen to Rp250 per kilogram," H Erdiman Daulay, chairman of the Indonesian Oil Palm Association, said here on Sunday.

He said that the price of oil palm fresh fruit bunches (TBS) had dropped since August to Rp250 per kg from the previous price of Rp700 a kg. Several days ago, the price was still Rp350 per kg.

Daulay explained that with a price of Rp350 / kg farmers were not able to cover their production costs. Transportation from the garden to buyers would cost Rp200 per kg, harvest would cost Rp200 per kg and load and unloading would cost Rp20 a kg.

"This leave only about Rp30 per kg for farmers. So, this sale price is quite inappropriate for farmers. Moreover, prices of commodities needed for daily life are now on the rise," he said.

That`s why, farmers in the last two harvesting seasons (two months) did not harvest their oil palm fruit. After all, in the last two days, prices of oil palm fresh fruit bunches had dropped to Rp250 / kg.
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