Falling water levels in Indonesia’s Kapuas River have exposed sandbanks, grounding several barges and tugboats. (EPA Images pic)SANGGAU: Supendi, a 33-year-old palm fruit farmer, cooled his heels at a mill in Indonesia's West Kalimantan for four frustrating days earlier this month trying to unload his harvest of fresh fruit bunches before being told to leave as the site was full.
For several weeks, local palm oil mills have cut their fresh fruit bunch purchases because storage tanks are filled with processed oil they cannot ship out as a prolonged drought driven by "super El Nino" conditions has dried out the area's main transportation artery, the Kapuas River.
"The fruit was not accepted," Supendi told Reuters by telephone. "Now we’re at a loss as to how to sell it.”
