The government of Indonesia will resume exports of palm oil on the 23rd (local time).
According reports, the government of Indonesia will lift the ban on exports of all derivatives except palm stearin, including palm oil (CPO), which has been in effect since the 28th of last month.
The Malaysian daily Borneo Post reported that this is a measure that takes into account the global shortage of cooking oil and the livelihood of 17 million domestic palm oil industry workers.
Palm oil is used for food products such as margarine, chocolate, and cakes, as well as household consumer products such as cosmetics and cleaning products such as soap and shampoo.
Indonesia, along with Malaysia, is the world’s largest palm oil producer and exporter. Indonesia accounts for 55 to 60% of the world’s supply.
However, as the supply of raw materials for various cooking oils such as palm oil, soybean oil, carola oil, and sunflower oil has recently been disrupted, there has been a shortage of cooking oil around the world.
As the price of cooking oil soared, Indonesian palm oil companies focused only on exports, and the price also jumped by up to 70% due to food shortages in the domestic market.
As a result, the Indonesian government has started to stabilize prices, including domestic supply obligations, price caps, and subsidies, but as it did not work, it came to take special measures called a ban at the end of last month.
Initially, the Indonesian government was planning to resume exports if the price of large-capacity cooking oil, which had jumped to 26,000 rupiah per liter, fell to 14,000 rupiah.
However, despite the ban, cooking oil is recently sold at 17,000 rupiah, pointing out that the effect of stabilizing the price of cooking oil is insufficient.
In addition, due to the ban on palm oil companies’ purchase of palm fruits under the ban, the price of palm fruits plunged, leading to a series of protests by domestic farmers.
In addition, the Indonesian government lifted the ban less than a month after it was implemented, taking a significant toll on the trade balance.
