The companys president director, Mustoha Iskandar, stated that natural sago has huge potential in Papua.
The company has invested Rp150 billion on the factory that would employ 40 locals and involve 600 farmers to supply the raw materials.
Currently, the price of sago in Java is Rp6,800 per kilogram, and its demand is expected to increase, he noted.
He remarked that the production from the factory would be distributed to Papua, Jakarta, Medan, Cirebon, Semarang, and Surabaya, while exports will be made to Japan, Korea, Thailand, and China.
Papua has the potential to produce eight million tons of sago from naturally grown trees.
President Joko Widodo inspected the factory on Friday and expressed hope that it would have a positive impact on the environment along with the regions economy.
With the factory becoming operational, the villagers of Kais would no longer have to visit Sorong, which could take a week by boat to reach, in order to sell their sago trunks as they could now supply them to the factory at a price of Rp nine thousand per trunk.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
