El Niño-powered drought leaves Indonesian palm farmers high and dry as river recedes

By Bernadette Christina and Soepriyadi Gunawan SANGGAU, Indonesia/JAKARTA, Oct 19 (Reuters) 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 Niño 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.” He had driven from his hometown to the Multi Prima Entakai palm oil mill in the city of Sanggau in early October carrying 7 metric tons of fruit bunches from his small farm and neighbouring ones. He is one of thousands of smallholder farmers in West Kalimantan s