REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MEDAN -- Crude palm oil and derivatives contributed 38.73 percent to foreign exchange earning of North Sumatra in the first quarter of 2016.

"In the first quarter of 2016, North Sumatra's exports of palm oil-based vegetable oils and fats were worth US$668.95 million or 38.73 percent of the province's total foreign exchange earning of US$1.73 billion," chairman of North Sumatra branch of the Indonesian association of palm oil companies(Gapki), Setia Dharma Sebayang, said here last weekend.

The export value of CPO and derivatives, however, shrank 11.19 percent from US$753.27 million recorded by the province in the same period in 2015, the regional office the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said.

The price of CPO and derivatives have plunged in the world market resulting in the decline in the province's earning from the exports of CPO and derivatives, Setia Darma said.