Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima are to visit Indonesia from March 10 to 13 at the invitation of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. In the lead-up to the state visit, the Dutch Foreign Ministry recently invited The Jakarta Post’s Yuliasri Perdani and several other Indonesian journalists to the Netherlands to talk with Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Stef Blok about the…
With new regulatory changes now taking place on the basis of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II of 2018, Indonesia and Malaysia are trying to come to terms with the implications for their global palm oil market strategy and domestic production. They are mobilising intra-regional support from ASEAN and its members and even considering…
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s chief economic minister, Airlangga Hartarto, said on Wednesday the government plans to increase palm oil export levies to support expansion of its palm biodiesel program. “The increase is currently being calculated, whether it will be a flat increase or progressive,” Hartarto told reporters. Further details on the plan are still being…
JAKARTA, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Indonesia state energy company PT Pertamina asked parliament to cap prices for some crude palm oil (CPO), as the company develops refineries to make fuel from the vegetable oil. Pertamina needs a guarantee on the supply and price of palm oil as feed stock for at least three refineries it…
Indonesia’s palm oil exports to China have declined due to a drop in demand for the vegetable oil as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, farming ministry officials said. Indonesia has so far exported 84,000 tonnes of palm oil this month, compared with 371,000 tonnes for the full month of February last year, data from…
MANCHESTER: The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) opines that any discouraging developments regarding palm oil could be resolved through a clear perspective and progressive and proportional explanation on the commodity value chain by both major palm oil buyers and major producers. Its head of operations (Europe) Dr Inke van der Sluijs said there should…
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Stef Blok said the Netherlands is not backing the European Union biofuel ban that targets Indonesia-produced crude palm oil (CPO). However, Blok asserts that this issue must not be dragged out any further and Indonesia must pursue a sustainable way of producing CPO. The foreign affairs minister…
Bogor, West Java. Plantation company Astra Agro Lestari claims it has developed its own technology to boost the productivity of its oil palm plantations and counter the short supply of modern plantation tools and machineries in Indonesia. The company, a subsidiary of Astra International, has devised at least three applications and tools to manage thousands of its…
JAKARTA, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Indonesia’s palm oil exports to China have declined due to a drop in demand for the vegetable oil as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, farming ministry officials said. Indonesia has so far exported 84,000 tonnes of palm oil this month, compared with 371,000 tonnes for the full month of…
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, officially reminded the state-owned energy firm Pertamina and the Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency to avoid being too frugal in developing the country’s catalyst industry as he reminded the energy company only has three out of roughly 50 catalyst producers to accelerate production. “We have the…
BRUSSELS, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Malaysia no longer plans to file a WTO lawsuit against EU restrictions on palm oil-based biofuel and will instead seek to convince European to change its treatment of the crop in a review scheduled for 2021. The European Commission concluded last year that palm oil cultivation results in excessive deforestation…
Jakarta – Smallholding palm oil farmers are no strangers to being made a scapegoat for forest destruction across Indonesia. But deep in the heartland of North Sumatra, the farmers show that with the right skills and knowledge, they can also become frontline guardians of the forest. Among the 26 provinces in Indonesia that produce palm…
Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s top palm oil producers, accused the European Union on Friday of unfairly targeting palm oil under a plan to impose new limits on levels of contaminants considered harmful to health in vegetable oils and fats. The EU intends to set new limits for food contaminants in refined oils and fats,…
Indonesia is likely to use up 8.3 million tonnes of palm oil to meet domestic demand for biodiesel this year, rising concerns there won’t be enough palm oil left to export, according to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, or Gapki. Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia is likely to use up 8.3 million tonnes of palm oil…
JAKARTA – The world’s top palm oil producer Indonesia exported a record 36.18 million tonnes of palm oil and its products, including biodiesel and oleochemical last year, data from the Indonesia Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) showed on Monday. Exports rose by 4.2% from 34.71 million tonnes in 2018, supported by rising demand from China, the…
JAKARTA, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Indonesia state energy company PT Pertamina has ended a partnership with Italian oil, gas and power firm Eni SpA to process palm oil into fuel, Pertamina’s chief executive told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday. Pertamina’s Nicke Widyawati said during the hearing that Eni required internationally recognised certification for palm oil,…
North Sumatra University (USU) in Medan plans to open a brand new palm oil program following the announcement of the Education and Culture Ministry’s Kampus Merdeka (Freedom Campus) policy, which gives universities across the country greater freedom to establish new programs. USU rector Runtung Sitepu said the program would be fitting, as North Sumatra was…
India is set to import less than 70,000 tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in January, the lowest since April 2011 and significantly lower than the 253,889 tonnes it imported in January 2019, traders and refiners said. India’s monthly palm oil imports from Malaysia could fall to the lowest level in nearly nine years in…
KUALA LUMPUR, January 26 – The Managing Director of the Malaysia Palm Oil Association (MPOA), Datuk Nageeb Wahab, said the attempt was only to protect European oilseeds. Nageeb told Malay Mail in an interview that the hostile campaign and the alleged justification of the EU are not justified. “We are more concerned about the reason…
Jakarta – The European Union had provoked a “trade war” by issuing discriminative restrictions on Indonesian palm oil, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo tweeted on Saturday. “Indonesia has 13 million hectares of oil palm plantations that produce 46 million tons [of crude palm oil, or CPO] per year. The EU has been saying that Indonesian palm…