JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Bambang Brodjonegoro, the Minister of National Development Planning, said that the negative campaigns against Indonesian palm oil products waged by the EU is a mere business competition.
The Indonesian palm oil products are considered as a threat to their longstanding olive oil business.

“The EU resolution which says that palm oil products cause deforestation, human rights violation, and unsustainable is just a pressure from the business community in Europe because they consider the Indonesian palm oil products as a threat to their olive oil business,” said Bambang during the launch of BPDB’s Palm Oil Book in Jakarta, on Tuesday evening (2/5/2017).

He said that olive oil and sunflower oil are very popular and widely produced in Europe.
If palm oil products enter the European market, it will threaten them.

It led to the birth of the EU Parliament’s resolution which calls palm oil products as the cause of deforestation.

“Palm oil is still controversial in Europe. But in my opinion, it is due to business competition because palm oil can be a threat to olive oil and sunflower oil, the two popular oils in Europe,” said Bambang.

He hoped that Indonesia can refute the allegations in the black campaign.
“We must also argue that it is only baseless allegations and is merely a trade war. But we also have to serve scientific justifications,” he said.

Biodiesel
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution, said that palm oil is one Indonesia’s flagship commodities, although the development cannot be separated from polemics.

“To keep it as our strategic commodity, our government has been working to reduce palm oil oversupply which causes the significant decline of the price of CPO and its derivatives in 2014-2015,” said Darmin.

According to him, the government has established Plantation Fund Management Agency for Palm Oil, an agency that provides incentives to drive biodiesel absorption in PSO and non-PSO market, to promote the biodiesel program.

“BPDP is an industry scheme to assist the industry, where exporting companies are required to deposit export levies that can be used to help the absorption of biodiesel so as not to burden the State Budget (APBN),” said Darmin.

According to him, by establishing new demand through mandatory biodiesel program supported by Plantation Fund Management Agency for Palm Oil, the government has managed to stabilize the price of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and the Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) by the end of 2015-2016 which is enjoyed by all stakeholders.

The positive impact of the Plantation Fund Management Agency for Palm Oil for Indonesia is started to be visible in 2015-2017
The price of CPO in mid-2015 that reached US$ 437/ ton has increased to US$ 620/ ton in March 2017, or has increased about 42% from the lowest point of CPO price.

“I believe that by maintaining the goal and spirit of the Plantation Fund Management Agency for Palm Oil establishment now and in the future, we will be able to have more efficient industry and provide a national added-value,” he said.

Author: Pramdia Arhando Julianto
Editor: Aprillia Ika

Source: bisniskeuangan.kompas.com