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Oil Palm Industry
Bakrie Sumatera Aims Liberia for Oil Palm
It will not be easy to acquire land concession in the conflicted country.
Rabu, 4 Februari 2009, 10:32 WIB
Heri Susanto 
Oil palm plantation (deptan.go.id)
VIVAnews - Top oil palm producer PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations is preparing to develop oil palm and rubber plantations in Liberia, covering an area of thousands of hectares.
"We are trying to obtain land concession with an area of 200 thousand hectares," Ambono Janurianto, President Director of Bakrie Sumatera Plantations, told VIVAnews on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
According to Januarianto, although the country had been in civil war for 20 years, Bakrie Sumatera is interested in investing in the tropical African country. "In addition, the land concession will be valid for 100 years," he said.
In order to materialize the international project, referring to report of the third quarter of 2008, as of 30 September 2008 Bakrie Sumatera had conducted a survey and proposed for permit. Total funds that the company spent for the project reached Rp 4.1 billion (US$350,500) aiming at a 4,000-hectare rubber plantation and a 4,000-hectare oil palm plantation.
However, Janurianto said that it will not be easy to acquire land concession in the conflicted country. The United Nations, which is still in control of the nation, helped providing transparency in the investment processes.
He stressed that the palm oil market has high potentials mainly in India and China, two Asian countries recorded as having high economic growth. In both countries, vegetable oil consumption is still less than 25 kilograms per capita per year. Meanwhile, the consumption in developed countries is about 50 kilograms per capita per year.
"This shows that the vegetable oil market will still have high potentials in the years to come," said Janurianto.
Meanwhile, palm oil's productivity is five times higher than soya oil, meaning an area of one hectare of oil palm produce vegetable oil five times higher than soya oil.
Therefore, vegetable oil producers continue to look at potential countries to invest in. The problem is that oil palm only grows well in tropical countries. Therefore, Asian, South American and African countries situated along the equator have been marked by vegetable oil producers.
Translated by: Bonardo Maulana Wahono
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