04/10/04 JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesia plans to expand its oil palmplantation areas to 10 million hectares within three decades to more thandouble its crude palm oil output, Minister of Agriculture Bungaran Saragihsaid Monday.

Saragih said the expansion efforts will be focused on the islands ofKalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua.

"When that happens, Indonesia will become the world's largest crudepalm oil exporter," he said, adding that annual output is expected toreach 25 million metric tons by then.

He didn't give details on how much new acreage would be developed eachyear.

He added that apart from exports, palm oil will be used for domesticindustries such as oleochemicals and biodiesel.

Indonesia is the world's second largest crude palm oil producer afterMalaysia. Indonesia's oil palm plantations total 4.6 million hectares, upfrom 2.3 million hectares in 1999. Palm oil output for this year isexpected to reach 10.5 million tons, up from 9.9 million tons in 2003.

In comparison, Malaysia has around 3.8 million hectares of oil palmplantations, with output expected to reach 13.66 million tons this year.