Where are Indonesia's palm oil plantations located?

Palm oil production take up about 12 million hectares in Indonesia.

Indonesia's oil palm plantation and processing industry is a key industry to the country's economy: the export of palm oil is an important foreign exchange earner while the industry provides employment opportunities to millions of Indonesians. In terms of agriculture, palm oil is the most important industry of Indonesia contributing between 1.5 - 2.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP).

Major palm oil production countries in the world

Statistics from 2009 calculated that Sumatra was home to 65% of Indonesia’s total plantations while 26% were located on Kalimantan, 3% in Sulawesi, and the remainder located in places such as Papua, and Java. Among the major regions on these islands that have now become crucial to producing this valuable agricultural product include Riau, North and South Sumatra, as well as Central and West Kalimantan.

Sumatra is part of Indonesia’s larger Greater Sunda Islands with a total area of 182,812 square miles and a population of approximately 50,180,000 residents. It includes the provinces of Aceh, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, Riau, as well as West, South, & North Sumatra.

Kalimantan occupies 73% of the island of Borneo. With a total land area of 210,097.52 square miles in 2017, the region was home to 15,894,524 people.