The call to produce CPO derivatives came amid the falling price of the basic material in the world market, head of regional plantation office Sutono said.
Demand for CPO would increase and the price would rise if more palm oil-based commodities are produced in the country, Sutono said.
"We want CPO producers to build processing facilities such as cheese factories," Sutono noted.
He said Lampung has in abundance the basic material to produce cheese or other CPO derivatives.
He said a number of consuming countries have slapped restriction on imports of CPO, some by tripling the import duty.
"France raised the import duty on CPO three time higher in November," he cited.
He said the price of oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) has remained law at around Rp500 per kg to follow the surge in production in the past six months.
Meanwhile, the capacity of factories in Lampung is not enough to process the FFB production in the region resulting in the price fall of commodity, he said.
Sutono said farmers need to know that normally FFB price falls in the second half of a year as the production is high.
He hopes that coffee and pepper growers would not be too quick to change their crop with oil palm especially as they are not aware of the risk.
(H-ASG/B003)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
