Jakarta June 6 2022: Indonesia has issued around 302,000 tonnes of palm oil export permits since the country restarted exports, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Sunday, while reassuring farmers and exporters that authorities would speed up the permit process.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest palm oil producer, on April 28 halted exports of the oil, which it uses for cooking, in efforts to control soaring prices at home.
The government allowed exports to resume from May 23, but put in place policies to safeguard domestic supply, including the so-called Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) under which producers must first sell a portion of their products at home.
The policy changes had resulted in red tape and slow issuance of export permits, industry groups and traders said, which helped keep global palm oil prices high amid weak output from rival Malaysia.
Indonesia typically exports around 2.5 million tonnes of palm oil products per month.
Luhut said the government would require palm oil companies to sell an equivalent of 300,000 tonnes of cooking oil per month under the DMO during a transition period following the resumption of exports.
Indonesia’s economic ministry official Musdhalifah Machmud at the same briefing said the government had made an adjustment regarding the export levy and a regulation spelling out the changes would be issued soon. She declined to give further details.
