Govt offering investors chance to develop cotton plantations

Antara News, Thu, February 17 2011

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Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government is offering investors a chance to develop cotton plantations to meet growing demand from the domestic textile industry, an Industry Ministry official said.

Right now the domestic yarn spinning and textile industries depended on imported cotton because of low domestic cotton output, the ministry`s director general of manufacturing industry base, Panggah Susanto, said here on Thursday.

He said domestic cotton output currently supplied 2.5 percent of the national needs.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) show the country last year imported US$2.23 billion worth of cotton compared to US$1.48 billion a year earlier.

Indonesia, with a population of 234 million, now imports cotton from China, Australia, the United States, and South Korea.

Because of large dependence on imported cotton, the domestic textile industry is easily influenced by a change in global cotton prices.

The government said earlier it would encourage the development of cotton plantations to reduce the country`s dependence on imported cotton.

To that end, the Agriculture Ministry has decided to develop cotton as one of the strategic commodities which will receive priority in the implementation of the 2010-2014 plantation development program.

Editor: B Kunto Wibisono