PTPN X to Expand Cheroot Export Market to China

Surabaya (Antara) - State plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) X said it will expand export market for its tobacco products to China. China is a potential market for cheroots and the Chinese market is open to tobacco products, PTPN X corporate secretary Mochammad Cholidi said here on Thursday. Cholidi said so far the company has exported cheroots mainly to the United States and Europe through an auction center in Bremen, Germany. "This year we have tried to expand market to China , but in a relatively small volume," he said. Cheroot of the small sized type, called cigarillos, is growing in demand in China, with the change in lifestyle, he added. In the first six months of the year tobacco exports of PTPN X, which is also a sugar producer, reached 634.30 tons valued at Rp97.29 billion. The exports exceeded the export target of 439.24 tons worth Rp70.65 billion set for the first six months of the year. "In the whole year, we hope to export 1,685 tons of tobacco worth Rp296.46 billion," Cholidi said. The company grew tobacco in 1,296.12 hectares of its plantations land in the first half of the year or 17.39 percent wider than in the same period last year. In the whole year it plans to expand the tobacco cultivation to 1,325 hectares in the regencies of Jember, Bojonegoro in East Java, and Klaten in Central Java. Indonesia is one of the world's largest exporters of tobacco with a market share of 34 percent, Cholidi said. (*)