Soengei Lipoet was a European agricultural estate (onderneming, plantation) in South-East Atjeh, in the neighbourhood of Kwalla Simpang on the Tamiang. In November 1913 Moens was shown over the undertaking by its management and saw in particular the working of the estate: evenals bijna alle ondernemingen in deze landstreek een rubber-estate met bijplanting van koffie — like nearly all the enterprises of that region, a rubber estate with interplanting of coffee. Foreign capital, above all Belgian, had interested itself chiefly in South-East Atjeh; besides rubber, coconut plantations were being laid out. The zone of European enterprise with its Javanese contract coolies, Moens noted, extended from Kwalla Simpang as far as Idi, and Moens recorded of the estate zone that the enterprise itself gave a strong impression of the fertility of the region.
Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
The Soengei Lipoet Cultuur-Mij — the Sungei Lipoet Cultivation Company — was one of the oldest and largest of the planting-companies of Tamiang, founded in 1908 with predominantly Belgian capital. The estate has a planting of more than 700 bouw of oil-palm besides 2.800 bouw of rubber. It lies right on the Atjeh-tram line and is not far from the Aroe-baai, so that this estate may consider undertaking its own despatch.
The Palm-Oil Factory
The preparation of palm-oil at Soengei Lipoet began in 1919. At first it was half-mechanical, half-manual, but gradually it became wholly mechanical. The fruits are brought on narrow-gauge rail; the nuts of other estates also arrive by the Atjeh-tram. After passing the weighbridge, the fruits are thrown onto platforms for storage and for sorting into first, second and third quality by ripeness and size. All fruit is processed into oil within twenty-four hours. The first pressing yields the best oil, suitable for margarine and better than copra because its melting-point is higher. The second pressing yields a second quality used for soap. The kernels are sent to Europe in sacks; the oil in casks of oak staves, 550 kg each, made from old wine-casks imported in staves from France.
The estate sends its oil to Marseille, Antwerpen, Rotterdam, London and Liverpool, where the great markets are, but shortly it will also make soap itself. It will make both scented and bar-soap, and sell it in the Indies and in the Straits. It has called for a craftsman for that purpose. In the soap-factory, of German invention, everything goes automatically, so that only six labourers are needed. The estate expects also for the oil-preparation a new factory, the factory of Krupp, with which one reckons to obtain a higher percentage of oil than is now possible with the present one. Soengei Lipoet has sometimes had as much as 16 percent wastage.
Significance
The Soengei Lipoet Cultuur-Mij is one of the few estates in the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden — and the only one in Tamiang — that has its own palm-oil factory. The estate is the type-case of the integrated oil-palm enterprise of the post-war period, and the decision to undertake its own soap-manufacture is the type-case of the further processing that the colonial government hoped the great estates would undertake.
Source
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter II, ‘Tamiang’, pp. 8–11.
See Also
- 1908
- 1913
- 1919
- Aroe-baai
- Atjeh-tram
- Idi
- Koeala Simpang
- Moens’ journey through Atjeh (November 1913)
- Tamiang
- Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)
Sources
Reisindrukken van Atjeh, door W. Moens, oud-luitenant ter zee (Amsterdam: Jacob van Campen, 1914), p. 12. OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-99-Reisindrukken_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.
Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim; Atjeh Patchouli-Olie, by Ir. W. Spoon (1932), for the Koloniaal Instituut and Handelsmuseum.