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Tobacco exports help Bentoel Group to generate profit

15 October 2019 07:32

LOMBOK. Tobacco exports in the third quarter of 2019 helped Bentoel Group to generate profit, after recording consecutive losses since 2012. However, management was not prepared to specify the amount of profit generated, since it had to wait for the release of its disclosure in the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

Independent President Commissioner of Bentoel International Investama, Hendro Martowardojo, said that the company started to export tobacco after its cigarette sales continue to decline. According to him, in the past five years, cigarette sales declined by 1% -2% annually.

This year, Bentoel Group will buy 9,000 tons of flue-cured virginia (FCV) tobacco from 1,226 farmer partners from various regions in East and Central Lombok, or 24% of Lombok's tobacco production from 25% of tobacco farmers in the region.

Bentoel exports 3,000 tons of tobacco produced by its partners in Lombok to Vietnam. "If we don't export, we will only purchase 6,000 tons this year," Hendro said.

Hendro added that another factor that help the company to generate profit is efficiency. "Aside from exports, we are also efficient. We sold our unnecessary assets and empty factories. We also make our distributors more efficient," he said. (AM/AR)

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