Indonesia Bans All Exports for Cooking Palm Oil ‘until Further Notice’, Jokowi Says

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has decided to ban all exports of cooking oil and its raw materials amid domestic soaring prices. It will take effect on Thursday, April 28.

“I just chaired a cabinet meeting on basic necessities for the people, mainly on the domestic stock of cooking oil,” the President told a streamed news conference here on Friday, April 22.
“During the meeting, I decided that the government will ban the export of cooking oil and its raw materials starting on Thursday, April 28, 2022, until further notice,” said the President, who is popularly known as Jokowi.

He reiterated that the government will constantly monitor and evaluate the policy to ensure abundant stock of cooking oil in the country that is known as the world's top palm oil producer.

Also read: Indonesia Steps Up Palm Oil Sludge Exports to Malaysia

“So availability of cooking oil in the domestic market becomes abundant and affordable,” he added.

Previously, during his visit to Sumenep in East Java on Wednesday, April 20, the head of state said that the soaring prices of cooking oil in the domestic market remained an issue. Even though the government has provided subsidies, the selling price must be affordable.

He said that the soaring domestic price of cooking oil-driven up by the prices of the international market that have peaked.

“As a result, the producers tend to export [the cooking oil] as the prices are higher,” he said.
In anticipation of that, the government has taken several policies such as establishing the retail price ceiling (HET) for bulk cooking oil and providing subsidies to producers. However, it has not been implemented because the price of cooking oil in the market was still high.
“We have seen that this has been going on for several weeks and it has not been effective,” said Jokowi.

Also read: Palm oil: Whats the big deal?

The government has set a cap of 14,000 rupiahs per liter ($0.97) for bulk cooking oil, but Trade Ministry data showed that it was sold at more than 18,000 rupiahs ($1.24) this month.

Earlier this week, amid the domestic soaring price and shortage of cooking oil, director-general of Foreign Trade Indrasari Wisnu Wardana was named a graft suspect for allegedly issuing export licenses of crude palm oil to ineligible companies.

(Writer: Dian Erika Nugraheny | Editor: Diamanty Meiliana)

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2022/04/22/19151381/jokowi-larangan-ekspor-bahan-baku-dan-minyak-goreng-sampai-batas-waktu-yang.