JAKARTA, May 11 Asia Pulse - The provincial administration of Indonesia'sSouth Sumatra said it will close palm oil processing factories in thatregion that do not own oil palm plantations.An official of the regional administration Syamuil Chatib said thefactories will be given three years to acquire their own plantations.

The government requires all palm oil processing factories to ownplantations to guarantee supply of raw material.

The policy is to prevent farmers from breaking their contracts withcertain factories by selling their fruits to other factories offeringhigher prices.

In addition, there have been cases of palm oil factories using stolen palmoil fruits as they have no plantations to supply the feedstock.

(ANTARA)