While tea and coffee were initially JA Wattie's key commodities, both now are only accounted for a tiny part of JA Wattie's plantation business at an acreage of only about 500 hectares each.
JA Wattie Finance Director Bambang S. Ibrahim said to AgroAsia that the company considered coffee and tea to be less prospective for now as productions are only once a year and depends heavily on rainfall.
"If rainfall is favorable, production will increase and vice versa," he said.
According to Ibrahim, tea plantations have become less prospective because of the low price, especially after the government abolished the fuel subsidy for manufacturing industries, including tea production.
JA Wattie were selling tea in the in the form of powder products. When the subsidy for diesel existed, the company sould still make profit, but after it was abolished, the production cost jumped, and it suffered losses. JA Wattie only sells tea shoots now.
"We think coffee still has good prospects, because many people like to drink coffee, but for tea, I think it's hopeless," he said.
"So going forward, we'll be focusing on rubber and oil palm," he added.
Jakarta listed plantation company JA Wattie plans to open up a total of 7,000 hectares of new oil palm plantations to add to its existing 21,088 hectares of oil palm acreage, opening 14,500 hectares of new rubber plantations from the current 9,455 hectares of rubber acreage until 2014. (rei-eaz)
(read the detail of the interview on the January, 18th Volume edition of AgroAsia Magazine)
