Indonesia plans to expand palm oil, cocoa plantations to Nigeria

JAKARTA, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia and Nigeria have agreed to cooperate in opening plantations for palm oil, cocoa and other commodities in the African country, an Indonesian minister said here on Wednesday.

Indonesian Industry Minister MS Hidayat made the statement after he accompanied President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to visit Nigeria last week.

"Nigeria has offered land for us, no matter how large we need, because it needs to cooperate with us in the agro-base industry, such as developing palm oil, cocoa and other commodities plantations," Hidayat said at the vice president's office.

"We want to have lands there, and have processing industry there and we will import it to Indonesia as our products," he said.

Indonesia is the world's largest palm oil producer and one of the world's top cocoa producers.

Hidayat said that President Yudhoyono had demanded a team be set up to study the offer.

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