Sabtu 30 Mar 2013 23:49 WIB

Almost four million Indonesians live on palm oil

Red: Yeyen Rostiyani
A worker checks the quality of crude palm oil (CPO) in a state CPO processing unit at Indonesia's North Sumatra province May 29, 2012.
Foto: Reuters/Tarmizy Harva
A worker checks the quality of crude palm oil (CPO) in a state CPO processing unit at Indonesia's North Sumatra province May 29, 2012.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MAMUJU - About 3.7 million people in Indonesia lived on oil palm plantations, a senior agriculture ministry said. Indonesia is the world`s largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer with an annual production of 25.5 million tonnes.

Speaking to a seminar at Santika Hotel here on Friday, Secretary of the Directorate General of Agriculture Mukti Sardjono said that oil palm played an important role in providing income for the people. He said it also served as an important factor for the expansion of regional development because more than 3.7 million people were employed in this sector. 

Palm oil, according to Mukti, is also an important source of state revenue as it serves a source of income from non oil/non gas exports. The value of palm oil exports is bigger than that of other agricultural product exports.

"In 2012, palm oil exports contributed 28.3 trillion IDR in export tax to the state so that this commodity has an important role in supporting the development of industry at home," Mukti said.