Indonesia's Agrinas plans to add dozens of mills and expand its palm plantations

Agrinas Palma Nusantara, a state-owned firm, received 674,178 acres (1.7 million acres), bringing the total land area given to Agrinas Palma Nusantara to 1.5 million acres (3.7 million acres).

Agrinas is now the largest palm oil producer in the world by land area. Agrinas has now the capacity to produce 5.7 millions metric tons crude palm oil per year, according to a government task force.

Zulham Koto, the company's director, told reporters that, despite its current production, it aims to increase this to meet potential.

Zulham stated that "we currently have 17 mills." We plan to add dozens of mills in the future, but with a huge area. Next year, more will be added.

He added that the output would be used to support the government's programme for cheap cooking oils in the short-term and bioenergy in the long-term.

He said that some areas given to Agrinas were in a damaged state and the company is working hard to restore them to their original condition.

Indonesia has crackeddown on illegal forest use, targeting plantations, and mining areas. The government announced on Friday that it had also taken over parts of two mines.

Febrie Adriansyah is a senior prosecutor in the office of attorney general. She said that another 1.8 million hectares confiscated from illegal operators by the government task force will also be verified before they are handed over to Agrinas.

Febrie said that the authorities would soon begin to calculate and collect fines from companies whose land had been seized.

These fines are mainly for illegal gains made while state lands were illegally used. Febrie, who is a task force member, said that the profit had to be returned. She added that the government will still control the land even after the penalties. (Reporting and writing by Bernadette Cristina Munthe; editing by David Stanway, Clarence Fernandez).

(source: Reuters)