News

Lampung farmers complain about price drop

Ahad, 19 Oktober 2008 | 08:15 WIB

Bandar Lampung, NU Online
Farmers at Lampung province`s cultivation center complained about the drop in prices of their crops such as coconut palm oil, rubber, coffee and cocoa as the global financial crisis has presumably affected export commodities.

Several farmers including traders of plantation products in Lampung wished that the prices of Lampung`s export commodities would recover, as production costs especially the prices of fertilizer and other general farming tools have been increasing.<>

The farmers at Tulang Bawang district, Lampung, rely on rubber plantation, local farmers at Way district cultivate CPO, and several other districts in Lampung combine the cultivation of rubber, coffee, cocoa and oil palm.

Due to the price drop, farmers had imagined big losses they would suffer while it was still uncertain when the prices would recover.

Hadi, a rubber farmer at Tulang Bawang, said the rubber price from the public plantation was around Rp4.000-Rp5.000 per kilogram, a drastic decrease from the price between Rp10.000-Rp12.000 per kg.

Several CPO farmers at Way Kanan district also complained about the same thing as the price was around Rp400-Rp500 per Kg, or dropped from the previous normal price.

Coffee and Cacao farmers at Tanggamus district, South Lampung and Pesawaran also complained about the decline in the export commodity prices.

The farmers said tens of millions had been spent for the cultivation and production in every hectare.

With the drop in the crop prices, they were estimated to suffer losses.

Besides purely run by farmers, the cultivation of the local export commodities was also supported by several Lampung administration officials, civil servants and other members of the local society.

The population of Bandarlampung city consisted of the government officials, entrepreneurs and legislators. Many of them also dealt with rubber, cocoa, CPO and coffee plantations in the districts of South Lampung, Tulang Bawang, West Lampung, Tanggamus, Way Kanan and other areas in the province. (ant/dar)