Indonesia applies stricter rule to limit crude palm oil exports

Indonesia, the world’s largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer and exporter, started on Monday the implementation of a stricter rule for CPO exports as an attempt to control a surge in domestic cooking oil prices.

Under the new rule, which will be applied for six months ahead, palm oil exporters are required to declare how much CPO, refined, bleached, and deodorized (RBD) Palm Olein and Used Cooking Oil (UCO) they have sold, or plan to sell, to domestic market in order to obtain permits for their export.

The exporters are also required to show their sales contracts, which include their export and domestic selling plans for six months ahead.

If they fail to fulfill the requirements, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade will hold their export approval documents, the ministry’s Director General for International Trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana told reporters on Monday.

Before the new rule, exporters were only required to do customs declarations for shipments.

This new temporary rule is applicable to all palm oil exporters including those that have never supplied domestic markets before and are not affiliated with cooking oil producers.

The ministry is currently trying to bring down cooking oil prices, which have risen about 40 percent from a year earlier, following the soaring global palm oil prices.

XINHUANET.com

Tags: cooking oil, domestic, Indonesia, prices, Crude palm oil, exporters