Indonesia will boost output of key agricultural commodities this year by farming more land, allowing the country to raise export revenues and reduce its dependence on imported goods, the agriculture ministry said on Thursday. Crude palm oil output would soar 14.5 percent in 2005, sugar output would climb 9 percent and rubber output 8 percent, the ministry said. A more modest 5 percent rise was seen in the cocoa bean crop, where Indonesia has been battling pest infestations, while depressed international prices would keep coffee, tea and pepper down the government's priority list this year.

Indonesia's sugar plantations would cover 4 percent more land this year, bringing their total area to 374,000 hectares, said Soebagyono Darmowiyono, director general of plantation production at the agriculture ministry.

Sugar output in 2005 was estimated to climb to 2.2 million tonnes this year, the ministry said, as Indonesia moved toward its target of ending sugar imports by 2007. By this date, around 50,000 hectares of sugar plantations would be replanted with seed varieties that produce higher yields, the ministry added.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest sugar importer, placed curbs on imports in 2002 to protect the minimum price of sugar at harvest time from an influx of cheap and smuggled sugar.

The government issued a total of 300,000 tonnes of white sugar import permits to state firms under quotas for 2005, of which about 70 percent - comprising mainly Thai sugar - has already been bought via tenders. Rubber output would rise to 2 million tonnes this year, the ministry said - slightly higher than industry forecasts of about 1.9 million tonnes.

"We have recommended rehabilitation programme to farmers expected to cover 400,000 hectares of plantation until 2010," Darmowiyono told reporters.

Copyright Reuters, 2005