CPO Factories Asked To Accept Farmers' FFB

Musirawas, South Sumatra , Oct 11(Antara) - Musirawas District Head Ridwan Mukti asked local crude palm oil processing factories to accept fresh fruit bunches (FFB) of oil palm from local farmers. The factories are also expected to give the farmers a fair and reasonable price, Ridwan Mukti said here on Friday. He said so far oil palm growers had found problem to dispose of their FFB as some factories refused to buy their product. Oil palm farmers in the sub-district of Rawas Ilir near the plantation of PT London Sumatera (Lonsum) have complained about their problem. "In the future, oil plantation companies having processing factories are strongly asked to accept FFB from local farmers with a reasonable price," he said. Head of the district plantation service Ramdani Lubis said the district head had given the best solution to difficulties faced by local oil palm farmers. Devi Arianto representing the local oil palm farmers said a coordinating meeting has been held to solve any problem with PT Lonsum, but the the management of the company refused to attend the meeting . The company sent only factory officials who could not make a decision, therefore, the meeting ended with no conclusive result, Devi said. He said the government should allow investors to build factory without requirement to have oil palm plantation. The government has ruled that only oil palm plantations are allowed to have factory to produce CPO. The policy is to prevent rampant stealing of oil palm fruits with factories as fence. In the past many CPO processing factories having no oil palm plantations became receivers of stolen oil palm fruits.