The Legend of four African Elaeis guineensis palms brought over by the Dutch in 1848, and planted in Buitenzorg Botanical Garden (now Botanical Garden Bogor) Indonesia laid the foundation for the oil palm industry in Indonesia and Malaysia. From these, the Deli dura palms with unique and favourable fruit qualities were developed. The Deli dura population is widely utilized for seed production and in genetic improvement programmes in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The district of Bogor enjoys an average annual rainfall of over 3,000mm distributed throughout the year and 1,800 hours of sunshine. This combined with the absence of any significant oil palm pest and diseases on the area, provides an ideal environment for the assessment of the full genetic potential of Mekarsari’s breeding material.

Now, The Mekarsari Oil Palm Research Station, also located in Bogor region approximately 30 kilometers of Jakarta, was inisiated by mrs Tien Soeharto, the Indonesian First Lady in 1990. Planning and Collecting superior plant materials from all over the Indonesian archipelago including oil palm trees started by years of 1992, and the tropical fruits garden was established by Mekarsari project team in 1995.

Rapid growth of oil palm industry in Indonesia for the last decade has triggered the fast development and expansion of the oil palm industry in Indonesia, the main problem at that time, was Shortage of high quality seeds, especially in the years of 1993 to 1997.

Since Indonesian planters has lacked in seed supply, Research activities carried out by Mekarsari Research Station are focused along two major product lines, namely Fruit and Oil Palm. As a reflection of the Group’s business structure and major activities, over 70% of  all research programmes undertaken during the year were focused on fruit and oil palm.

In order to secure the availability of high-grade seed for the expanding oil palm industry in Indonesia, genetic material from the SEU Oil Palm Research Station in Malaysia was planted in Mekarsari. This material was derived from palms achieving high oil yields over four generations in Malaysia.

Late 2001 saw the formation of a 49/51 joint venture based in Bogor with the Sasaran Ehsan Utama Sdn Bhd. The joint venture company has established 300 hectares of a seed garden and to help meet the anticipated high demand for SEU material in Indonesia, in the year of 2004, the joint venture company has agreed to sign franchice agreement. SEU’s commitment is for the supply of the genetic material and technical expertise only.

The Company has established a modern tissue culture laboratory and seed processing facilities, with an estimated annual processing capacity of 20 million seeds. However production is restricted by our adherence to rigorous selection criterion with only proven palms being used as “mother” palms.

Mekarsari is the only oil palm breeding center in Jawa Island and provides the industry with high yielding seeds.
All this research and development combined has produced an excellent quality of seed capable of providing the world’s highest oil palm yields and mill extraction rates.

Mekarsari was also able to assist any buyers overcome technical problems arising from the project development of palm oil plantation.