South Konawe’s Oil Palm Industry are Waiting for Investors

The Chief of Southeastern Sulawesi’s Chamber of Commerce (Kadin), La Mandi, invited entrepreneurs to invest their assets on Oil Palm’s industry. Since the raw materials for Oil Palm at their area, South Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi is all prepared and ready. According to La Mandi, the presence of cultivation industry for Oil Palm will prosper the farmers, based on the estimated price for 1.000 Rupiah per kilograms of fresh clusters of fruits. Sadly, at the moment the price only goes up to 650 Rupiah per kilogram, even sometimes at 500 Rupiah per kilos. “We already communicated this business opportunity to our business partners in Java and Sumatra, but so far there are no serious responds,” says La Mandi. The existence of industrial investors in Oil Palm cultivations is greatly anticipates—not only by the government, but also by the farmers themselves. The farmers hope that with the presence of an investor, their welfare would be greatly elevated. One of the Oil Palm land workers in South Konawe, Kasmin (39) is saying that the crop harvests at the moment is unable to open any opportunity for the farmers, thanks for the hands of the wholesalers. “I think it’s time for Oil Palm cultivation industry, since hundreds of hectars of Oil Palm are already on production. We as a farmer can’t do much since the fresh crops already falls to the hands of the wholesalers,” says Kasmin, Sunday (20/5/2018). “Since their main objective is to make money, the wholesalers do as they like with the prices. We as farmer sometimes think we rather give the crops to them for free, instead of the fruit rots,” as Kasmin states. The fresh clusters of fruits are mobilized by the wholesalers from South Konawe to Morowali district in Middle Sulawesi to be processed half-ripe. (Antara)