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Farmers in Sumatra let oil palm fruit rotten as prices fall |
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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 Assication, 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.
(source : antara)
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