Indonesia to allow palm oil exports to resume
Indonesia announced that it would resume palm oil exports on May 19, 2022. © AP - Tatan Syuflana
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Indonesia will authorize next week the resumption of palm oil exports, of which the country is the world's largest producer, announced Thursday, May 19, the president of the Southeast Asian country Joko Widodo.
Advertisement
Read more
Indonesia
will allow the resumption of palm oil exports, of which the country is the world's largest producer, from next week, the president of the Southeast Asian country Joko Widodo announced on Thursday.
The ban on palm oil exports
put in place on April 28 had destabilized a world vegetable oil market already at its highest since the war in Ukraine.
"
Given the supply and the situation of cooking oil, and given that there are 17 million people employed in the palm oil sector ... I have decided that cooking oil exports can resume on Monday, May 23,
” the president said in a brief statement posted online.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has been facing a shortage and
soaring prices of
palm oil-based cooking oil on its domestic market for several months, which threatens to create social tensions.
► To listen:
Chronicle of raw materials: Palm oil: a booming market
"
Even though exports will resume, the government will strictly observe the situation to ensure that demand is supplied at an affordable price
," the president said.
60% of world palm oil production
When announcing the suspension of palm oil exports, Joko Widodo stressed that supplying the population was "
the highest priority
".
Jakarta had planned to resume exports when the wholesale price of cooking oil fell to 14,000 rupees (97 cents), from nearly 20,000 rupees per liter before the ban.
Prices have fallen, but not as much as hoped, reaching 17,200 to 17,600 rupees per liter currently, conceded the president.
The country of 270 million inhabitants suffers from problems of distribution and retention of stocks while producers prefer to sell their shipments internationally to take full advantage of the rise in prices.
Indonesia accounts for some 60% of world palm oil production, one third of which is consumed on its domestic market.
It exported 34.2 million tonnes last year for edible oil but also for the manufacture of a wide range of products, from cosmetics to food products.
Its biggest export customers are India, China, the European Union and Pakistan.
(
with AFP
)
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Indonesia
Trade and Exchanges
Food
China
Pakistan
European Union