North Sumatra
Indonesia's #2 palm oil producer with 150+ years of plantation history, testing Lake Toba tourism as diversification.
When the Toba supervolcano erupted 74,000 years ago, it left behind Southeast Asia's largest lake and some of the world's most fertile volcanic soils. Dutch colonists recognized this fertility in the 1860s, establishing the first commercial palm oil plantations at Deli. The 'Deli' rubber and tobacco became global brand names; the palm oil estates never stopped expanding.
Today North Sumatra produces more palm oil than most countries, ranking second only to neighboring Riau among Indonesian provinces. The colonial-era pattern persists: commodities flow down rivers to Belawan port, the province's 15 million people depending on these same export crops. GRDP reached IDR 273 trillion in Q1 2024, with palm oil downstreaming emerging as a new growth axis. But the economic monoculture carries genetic risk—when palm oil prices dropped 28% in 2023, the entire province felt the tremor.
Lake Toba itself has become North Sumatra's diversification strategy. The government designated it a 'super-priority destination' in 2020, betting that tourism can reduce palm dependency. By 2026, the province will test whether volcanic soils can birth a second industry as successfully as they birthed the first.