JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI.JK) saidThursday its crude palm oil output in the first six months of this yearrose 31% on year to 374,380 metric tons, due to an increase in fresh fruitbunch production.

Crude palm oil is extracted from fresh fruit bunches.

Astra Agro said in a statement that its fresh fruit bunch productionduring the period rose 28% to 1.47 million tons, from 1.14 million tons inthe same period last year.

The company said it expects this year's crude palm oil output toexceed its target of between 10% and 15% growth. In 2003, Astra Agro'scrude palm oil output rose 17% on year to 633,425 tons.

It didn't provide any explanation for its output growth.

The company said that in the first half of this year, it exported172,810 tons of CPO, mostly to India, Malaysia, Vietnam and theNetherlands. In comparison, its exports at end-June last year was only76,205 tons.

Astra Agro, a unit of automotive company PT Astra International(ASII.JK), has a total of around 185,000 hectares of palm oil plantationsin Sumatra, Sulawesi and the Kalimantan islands.