Jakarta, Feb 28 (ANTARA) - The Agriculture Ministry has so far licenced 74companies to open palm oil plantations covering 672,977 ha in 14 provinceswith a total investment of Rp17.3 trillion.

Of the total, 24 companies had opened palm oil plantations covering233,382 ha with an investment of Rp5 trillion, the ministry's plantationdevelopment director Salam Taher said on Friday.

"With the addition of 233,382 ha, crude palm oil production will increaseby about 930,000 ton annually," he said.

He said each of the 24 companies which had already secured a businesspermit was planning to set up a CPO plant with a capacity of producing 10tons to 60 tons of fresh palm oil bunches per hour.

Overall, the 24 companies would have a capacity of producing an average of775 tons of fresh palm oil bunches per hour, he said.

To date, the country's CPO production stands at 9.8 million tons, whileits palm oil plantations cover 3.5 million ha consisting of 1.7 million haowned by large-scale plantation companies, 1.4 ha by state plantationcompanies, and 700,000 ha by smallholders.

With the addition of 672,977 ha of palm oil plantations, Indonesia's CPOis expected to outstrip Malaysia's in two to three years' time.