ublicly listed palm oil company Provident Agro is aiming for an increase in crude palm oil (CPO) production this year to offset the impact of fluctuating prices in the wake of a growing number of productive plantations and the operation of two palm oil mills.
The company’s president director, Tri Boewono, said that productive plantations had grown to 39,100 hectare as of Q1/2016, or 83.8 percent of the total palm-oil plantations owned by the company. Last year, productive plantations were only 17 percent of the firm's total estates.
“We’ll keep optimizing the productivity of the company’s plantations and those managed by associated farmers. Boosting palm oil and CPO production is our strategy to deal with the business challenges amid price fluctuations,” Tri said in a press statement in Jakarta on Tuesday .
The strategy proved to be effective to support the company’s production. In the first quarter of the year, Provident Agro recorded a 4.5 percent and 39.6 percent increase in fresh fruit bunches (FFB) and CPO production, respectively.
The positive operation was followed by improved financial performance, the company registering Rp 255.27 billion (US$19.2 million) in revenue, a 6.67 percent increase from the first quarter of 2015.
Provident Agro corporate secretary Devin Antonio Ridwan said the firm had finished two mills with processing capacity of 45 tons of FFB in 2015, located in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan. “They have been finished ahead of schedule, supporting higher CPO production,” he said. (ags)
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