Indonesia, the world's top producer of palm oil, expects production of the oil in 2010 to increase by more than 5 percent, while output of rubber and cocoa is also set to rise, the agriculture ministry said. Palm oil output is expected to hit 20.5 million tonnes in 2010, up 5.6 percent from 19.4 million tonnes this year, Achmad Mangga Barani, director general of plantation crops at the ministry said.
The area under cultivation of palm oil is set to increase by around 11 percent next year to 8.12 million hectares (20.06 million acres), the official said. Rubber output is expected to increase by 2.7 percent to 2.66 million tonnes next year, while white sugar output from local cane plantations was forecast to hit 2.97 million tonnes, up from 2.85 million tonnes this year.
In 2010, the area under cultivation for rubber is forecast to reach 3.82 million hectares, up from 3.52 million hectares this year, while the size of sugar cane plantations should expand by nearly 2 percent to 450,950 hectares. Cocoa output is forecast to increase by 5.85 percent to 899,700 tonnes in 2010 from 849,900 tonnes this year, while coffee output is expected to hit 699,000 tonnes, a 1.4 percent increase from this year.