15/09/04 JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesia is expected to produce more than12 million metric tons of crude palm oil in 2005, Agriculture MinisterBungaran Saragih told reporters Wednesday.Bungaran said that by next year, Indonesia will be able to match themight of Malaysia, the number one producer of palm oil in the world now."The area under (oil palm) cultivation has gone up to 4.6 millionhectares from around 2.3 million hectares in 1999," he said, addinginvestor interest in oil palm has been high because of lucrative prices ofthe commodity. In comparison, Malaysia had around 3.8 million hectares ofoil palm at the end of last year."The farmers and investors responded well by using their own money toinvest in plantations" without the government providing any incentives forinvestment, Bungaran said.He said the country is on track to produce an estimated 11 milliontons of crude palm oil this year. According to estimates from theIndonesian Palm Oil Producers Association, or Gapki, Indonesia produced9.9 million tons of palm oil in 2003."In 2005 we can match Malaysia. Production could be more than 12million tons," Bungaran said.Private forecasts have pegged Indonesian palm oil exports around 6.5million tons this year.He said there are now six companies supplying high quality oilpalmseeds to farmers as against just three companies earlier.