Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia`s exports in 2010 reached a total value of US$150 billion, the highest figure ever achieved in the country`s foreign trade.

Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Chairman Rusman Heriawan on Friday said Indonesia`s exports in the period January-November 2010 reached a total value of US$140 billion while the figure for December 2010 was expected to be above US$10 billion.

He said natural resource-based commodities such as Crude Palm Oil (CPO) were still the biggest contributors to Indonesia`s export revenue followed by such goods as rubber, textiles, textile products and electronics.

Indonesian was still known as the largest CPO producer and exporter in the world with exports reaching a total value of 10.03 billion US dollars in 2010 or up from 7.65 billion US dollars in 2009.

The Indonesian Oil Palm Association (GAPKI) estimated that in 2010, the country produced 22 million tons of CPO from at least 7.3 million hectares oil palm plantation across the country.

Recently the government had reduced CPO exports but raised its downstream products to give the commodity added value.

The effort is done by developing the oil palm downstream production in clusters on several areas, and a master plan to develop these clusters has been prepared by the ministry for 2010-2014 periods.

However, Rusman said Indonesia`s total export in 2010 had not yet considered as big if compared to China`s. "China`s export rate per month reaches US$135 billion while Indonesia only earned US$150 billion last year. We expect the Indonesian Export Finance Institution (LPEI) to keep boost our export activity in the future," Rusman said.

(SYS/A051/F001)

Editor: Suryanto
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