Asian Agi distributed IDR 3.6 billion worth of palm oil sales premiums to its partner farmers.
The premiums were distributed through 72 Village Unit Cooperatives (KUD) in the Riau and Jambi provinces, which comprise 30,000 farmers altogether.
The profit was obtained through the sale of palm oil (which had been supplied by the Asian Agri partner farmers) to international markets in 2016,
“After adopting and implementing sustainable practices in oil palm plantations, we are able to receive incentives at the prices we sale the palm oil at. Today, we will distribute the premiums which actually belong to the farmers,” said Fadhil Hasan, Asian Agri Director of Corporate Affairs.
According to Fadhil, the Asian Agri-smallholder partnership program has been running since 1987. At present, there are 30,000 partner plasma farmers who manage oil palm plantation areas covering 60,000 ha.
Bambang, Director-General of Plantation at Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture, said training farmers should be the responsibility of all parties. He said that palm oil production, which contributes much to foreign exchange, should continue to be encouraged.
He noted that there are still many parties who do not want Indonesian palm to grow, who propagate various negative issues to do with Indonesian palm oil.
“This is a valuable lesson for us. Besides providing education and justifying all our practices, we can also use the opportunity to improve our palm oil,” said Bambang.
