07/07/2011 (Tempo Interactive) - State plantation company, PT Perkebunan Negara IVX (PTPN), is managing productive land in Sulawesi to transform it into an oil palm development and crude palm oil (CPO) production center.

“The sugar business is being reduced and more attention is being placed on oil palm to meet the export market,” said spokesman Bahrun Mangkona on Tuesday.

Areas being managed include Malili and Burau, East Luwu, South Sulawesi (13,500 hectares of land); Wajo Sengkang (4,000 of 12,000 hectares); and Konawe Southeast Sulawesi (2,500 of 10,000 hectares).

Oil palm is also planted in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, on 3,500 hectares of a total of 15,000 hectares of land. In Malili and Burau, Bahrun said, there were CPO processing plants each with a total production capacity of 30,000 tons per year.

Konawe and Morowali still need new investments for oil palm plant construction.

The state-run company is opening cooperation opportunities to invest in a 30,000 ton-capacity plant with a minimum budget of Rp 80 to 100 billion per unit.

Arifin Soemedi, the South Sulawesi Plantation Office chief in charge of the post-harvest and information system, said oil palm development potential in the area was promising.

Productive land here, he added, amounted to more than 50,000 hectares, and could compete with that in Sumatra and Kalimantan.