PANGKALPINANG, KOMPAS.com – Palm oil industry maintains a significant growth in Indonesia. It can be seen from the export volume of palm oil products which keep increasing every year.
Based on the data from Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP) for Palm Oil, the total export volume of palm oil products reached 21.77 million tons in 2014, 26.39 million tons in 2015, and 28.26 million tons in 2016. In the first quarter of 2017, palm oil export has reached 6.34 million tons.
There are many countries who feel threatened to see the great potential of palm oil in Indonesia because they can only produce soybean and rapeseed to be processed into vegetable oil.
“There are several developing countries who feel threatened because palm oil only grows in tropical climates. It cannot grow in the US or Europe,” said the Director of Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP) for Palm Oil, Dono Boestami, in Pangkal Pinang, on Wednesday (26/4/2017).
Palm oil beats soybean and rapeseed from the comparison of the processed products/ ha. Palm oil could produce 3.85 ton of oil/ ha, while soybean only produce 0.45 ton/ ha and rapeseed 0.69 ton/ ha.
Therefore, many countries must import palm oil from Indonesia to meet their needs of vegetable oil.
“The demand of palm oil rises as the growth of population. The world’s need for edible oil from palm oil is on track,” said the Chairman of Supervisory Board of Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDP) for Palm Oil, Rusman Heriawan.
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The Flagship
Coordinating Minister for Economy, Darmin Nasution, said that palm oil is the most important commodity for Indonesia. It is in the top rank of the flagship commodities and become the pride of Indonesia.
Darmin said that the palm oil derivatives products have contributed 75% to the export from non-oil and gas sector. In other words, palm oil is the largest contributors to the country’s revenue.
Author: Iwan Supriyatna
Editor: M Fajar Marta
Source: http://kompas.com/