InfoSAWIT, BANDA ACEH – Agriculture and Plantation Agency Aceh Province decided fresh fruit bunch (FFB) price for on 25 July - 15 August 2024. The 10-20 year old FFB is Rp 2.749 per kilogram in the eastern and Rp 2.712 per kilogram in the western of Aceh.

The 3 year old FFB Rp 1.997 per kilogram in the eastern the eastern and Rp 1.971 per kilogram in the western of Aceh. The 25 year old FFB is Rp 2.514 per kilogram in the eastern and Rp 2.481 per kilogram in the western of Aceh. Crude palm oil (CPO) is Rp 12.691,37 per kilogram.

Aceh Province through Agriculture and Plantation Agency took the smallholders to get partnership with CPO mills so that the smallholders would properly get FFB price.

Head of Agriculture and Plantation Agency, Cut Huzaimah said that the government decided FFB in phase. The smallholders should get FFB selling price as same as what the government decided. One thing to realize it is by having partnership with the mill. “If they are in partnership, the company should purchase FFB as same as the price that the government decided,” Cut Huzaimah said in Banda Aceh, as InfoSAWIT quoted from Antara, Tuesday (30/7/2024).

The FFB price was referred to the Regulation of Minister of Agriculture Number 1 / 2018 about Fresh Fruit Bunch Purchasing Price Guidelines that Smallholders Produced. The mills that did not obey the regulation would get sanction, starting from the administration until the business permit revocation. “But if the smallholders are not in partnership, it would be difficult for us to deliver the sanction for the mills,” she said.

She continued, the smallholders in Aceh were small in numbers that got partnership with the mills and this made FFB price cheaper than it that the government decided. “For all these years, the smallholders sold their production to the middlemen and then the middlemen sold it to the mill. The middlemen got better selling price,” she said.

By having partnership, the smallholders would directly sell to the mills and the mills would develop the smallholders to produce FFB well, including to get enough yield. “There should be no reason to say that the yield would not be good if the smallholders were in partnership. But if they are not, the company would say so. This made FFB cheaper. That is why we encouraged the smallholders to get partnership with the companies,” Cut Huzaimah said. (T2)