16/15/05 Jakarta (Asia Pulse) - Indonesia is finding it difficult to catch up with Malaysia in crude palm oil (CPO) production and in its export of the commodity to the European market.

Malaysian businessmen were even planning to build CPO plants in Europe," General Chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Community (MAKSI) Purwiyatno Haryadi told a seminar and second MAKSI congress in Bogor on Thusday.

Up to 2004, he said, Malaysia`s CPO production reached 13.60 million tons, while Indonesian CPO output stood only at 10.02 million tons.

The Indonesian Crude Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) said Indonesia this year will be able to produce 13 million tons of CPO including four tons for domestic consumption, and the rest for export.

In the meantime, Malaysian CPO production in 2015 is estimated at 16 million tons, while Indonesia will only be able to boost its production to 14.90 million tons. By 2020, Indonesia`s CPO output may reach 17 million tons, while Malaysia`s CPO might reach 18 million tons.

According to Purwiyatno, Indonesia has 5.23 million hectares of oil palm plantations, consisting of 1.8 million hectares of smallholder estates, 2.8 million hectares of private plantations and 0.6 million hectares of state plantations.

At least 80 percent of the oil palm plantations are located in Sumatra especially in the provinces of Riau, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, West Kalimantan, and Central Kalimantan.

With the existing potentials, he added that the result of a research conducted by many research institutions grouped in Maksi is hopefully to be applied by industries to increase the added-value of their products.

"By taking into account the result of the research, the exports should not only comprise CPO, but its derivatives as well," he said.

He admited that up till now it had been quite difficult to determine a particular CPO derivative which would really benefit Indonesia.

At present, the 29.6 percent of CPO for domestic consumption is only for cooking oil, and the rest processed into oleochemicals (6.8 percent), soap (2 percent) and butter (1.6 percent).

The world production of CPO, according to him, is estimated to be comparable to soybean oil production by 2015. At that time, the world total production of CPO will likely reach 37.41 million tons, and soybean oil 37.15 million tons.

Last year, the total production of CPO only reached 29.78 million tons, and soybean oil 31.54 million tons.(ANTARA)