2024 opens up new palm oil export opportunities for Indonesia

Palm oil exports have been a complex and high-profile issue for Indonesian diplomats in 2023, especially with negotiations on the European Union (EU) trade agreement with Indonesia and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) causing discontent at the highest levels.

However, the coming year presents Indonesia with an opportunity to turn its impressive track record of decoupling oil palm production from deforestation into a world-leading supply of sustainable palm oil, and to make it part of its growing status as a global leader.

European and global attitudes towards Indonesian palm oil continue to be driven by images of burning forests and the resulting smog problem of the past decade, and are not matched by the government’s impressive record of dramatically reducing deforestation and largely severing its link to oil palm production.

Estimates based on data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry suggest that by the EUDR cut-off date, 99% of Indonesian palm oil was produced without deforestation.

Data for 2022 shows that 104,000 hectares of forests were lost, but less than half of these were likely to have been palm-related.

This means that Indonesia’s palm oil has a low risk of deforestation and should not be subject to further EU market scrutiny.

Tags: Indonesia, export