12/10/2008 (The Jakarta Post) - Thousands of farmers in Rokan Hulu regency, Riau province, in Sumatra are leaving their oil-palm fruit unharvested, letting it rot on the tree because of the sharp price decline for the export commodity, ^YAntara^Y news agency reported Sunday.

"About 60 percent of farmers cultivating 118,000 hectares of oil- palm plantations in Rokan Hulu are not harvesting their oil-palm fruit since the price fell to Rp 250 (2.5 US cents) per kilogram," H. Erdiman Daulay, chair of the Indonesian Oil Palm Association, said in Jakarta on Sunday.

He said the price of oil-palm berries had dropped from the August high of Rp 700 per kg. Several days ago, the price was still Rp 450 per kg.

Daulay explained that, even at the higher selling price of Rp 450 per kg, farmers were barely able to cover their production costs. Harvesting the berries costs Rp 200 per kg, transportation from the plantation to buyers costs another Rp 200 per kg; and loading and unloading the fruit costs Rp 20 per kg.

"This leaves only about Rp 30 per kg for farmers. So, this low selling price is quite inadequate for them. Moreover, commodity prices, everyday living costs, are now on the rise," he said.

"That's why during the last two harvest rounds in the last two months, farmers haven't been harvesting their crop.

"The Rp 250 price has hit us hard."