Three palm oil factories to be built in Bangka Tengah

Koba, Babel  (Antaranews Babel) - Three big local companies of the Bangka Belitung province planned to build palm oil processing factories in the district of Bangka Tengah to cost hundreds of billions of rupiahs.

Head of the Regional Agriculture Service Rusli Khaidir said PT Putra Bangka Tani, PT Bangka Agro Mandiri and PT Mutiara Hijau Lestari, which have oil palm plantations want to build factories to process the fruits of their oil palm trees.

"They want to build three factories to process fresh fruit bunches to produce crude palm oil in three separate locations," Rusli Khaidir said here on Wednesday without giving details of the investment.

PT Putra Bangka Tani plans to build a factory at the village of Belilik, PT Bangka Agro Mandiri to build one in the village of Sarang Mandi and PT Mutiara Hijau Lestari in the village of Arung dalam Koba.

"Currently the companies are seeking the necessary licenses. They are expected to start work to build the factories in 2019 when the licenses have been granted," he said.

He said the construction of the factories would have positive impact on the economy of the region.

The factories would need many workers that would contribute to greatly to reducing unemployment, he said.

"We could estimate how many jobs the three factories would provide . Certainly thousands of new jobs would be available for local people," he said.

He said more palm oil processing factories are needed in the region, which so far has only one in Bangka Tengah that oil palm farmers are often in difficulty to dispose of their oil palm fruits.

The three new factories would solve part of the problem faced by the farmers, he added.