REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Indonesia's oil palm plantations have increased due to growing demand for palm oil in national and international markets.

"Total oil palm plantations have reached 10,210,892 hectares in 2014, up from 10,010,824 hectares in 2013," the chairman of the Indonesia Palm Oil Association, Fadli Hasan, said on Friday.

He added that individual plantation holdings in 2014 reached 4,454,892 hectares while 5,055,409 hectares were held by private companies. State-owned company plantations occupied 700,591 hectares. It has been predicted that the plantations will increase to 10,721,436 hectares next year; and 4,810,271 hectares will be smallholders' plantations, 5,207,071 hectares will be under private companies, and 704,094 hectares will be state-owned plantations.

"The expansion of oil palm plantations is in line with growing world population and income," he noted.

He observed that by 2020, the world population will be estimated to reach around eight billion and demand for vegetable oil will touch 234 million tons.

"The use of palm oil will continue to increase not only as food but also as fuel and feed," he said, adding that the use of palm oil as fuel would increase in line with the implementation of the renewable energy program that would become mandatory in many countries.

"Around 86 percent of palm oil is currently used for consumption while the rest is used for fuel and industries," he added.

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