Bakrie Sumatera Expands Rubber Plantations

Investor Daily

Plantation company Bakrie Sumatera Plantations, encouraged by high world rubber prices, is planning to expand its rubber plantations by up to 12,000 hectares in Bengkulu, its top executive said.

Bakrie Sumatera president Bambang Aria Wisena said that high global rubber prices are promoting the company to focus on the expansion of its rubber plantations.

“And besides that, rubber plantations have less problems than palm oil ones,” Bambang said on Wednesday.

He said that his company as a result had halted the conversion of its rubber plantations into palm oil and it now operated 19,000 hectares of rubber plantations in the country.

It operates a total of 120,000 hectares of rubber and palm oil plantations.

In 2013, the company is planning to build a rubber processing factory in South Sumatra to produce crumb rubber with an investment of Rp 40 billion ($4.2 million), Bambang said, declining to give further details.

He said that the company’s rubber production is estimated to reach 29,000 to 30,000 tons this year, higher than last year’s 20,000 tons.

Most of the company’s products are exported, he said.