P

ublicly listed plantation firm PT London Sumatra (Lonsum) is seeking to export oil palm seeds to several more countries in Asia and Africa after its success in marketing them to Colombia in Latin America.

Seed sales officer Muhammad Husaini said in Simalungun, North Sumatra, on Thursday that the planned increase of oil palm seed exports was part of the company'€™s program to offset the fall in seed sales in the domestic market.

 '€œWe have sold as many as 5,000 oil palm seeds to Colombia and we hope to expand our export markets to Angola, the Philippines, Peru and Myanmar,'€ Husaini said.

Husaini said that Lonsum had offered the seeds to several oil palm plantations in these countries, but no orders had been placed thus far.

Because of ongoing sluggish sales in the domestic market, Lonsum would make serious efforts to sell its oil palm seeds overseas, he said, adding that Colombia was the only country that had bought oil palm seeds from his firm.

Lonsum offers its oil palm seeds to foreign buyers at US$1.50 each, the same price as in the domestic market. Lonsum sold 16 to 17 million oil palm seeds in the domestic market in 2013, far lower than the 25 million seeds sold in 2012.

'€œSeed sales in the domestic market fell last year. This is why we are trying to expand our sales in foreign markets,'€ Husaini, adding that the company planned to sell 16 million oil palm seeds this year, almost the same as seed sales recorded last year.

'€œWe sold 1.5 million oil palm seeds by April 2014. Our consumers are 19 local companies,'€ said Husaini.

In 2013, Lonsum sold its seeds to 96 companies, including to major palm oil producers such as Musim Mas, Triputra Agro Persada, Best Agro and Poly Plant.

Lonsum research department coordinator Ahmad Subagio said that all oil palm seeds sold to the market are produced by Lonsum'€™s Bah Lias Research Station, located in Simalungun regency, North Sumatra.

Bah Lias Reseacrh was one of three research centers owned by Lonsum to produce oil palm seeds, said Subagio, adding that the other centers were located in South Sumatra and East Kalimantan.

Lonsum, one of Indonesia'€™s oldest and largest publicly listed plantation companies, booked Rp 200 billion ($17.5 million) from the sales of oil palm seeds in 2013, down from the Rp 327.7 billion it booked in 2012, according to Subagio.

Subagio said that palm oil, the biggest contributor, contributed to about 81 percent of the company'€™s total revenue, followed by rubber sales with 10 percent, oil palm seeds sales with 7.8 percent and chocolate sales with 1 percent.

Lonsum booked Rp 4.13 trillion in revenue last year, a slight decline from Rp 4.2 trillion in 2012. The company attributed the decline to the fall in prices of rubber and palm oil products as well as to the sales volume drop for the company'€™s farm products except palm oil. (alz)