Palm Oil Demand Rise During Ramadan

DURING  the holy month of Ramadan usually the demand for food staple needs will increase tremendously in the country.

Palm Oil Demand Rise During Ramadan
DURING  the holy month of Ramadan usually the demand for food staple needs will increase tremendously in the country. This is will closely related to the increase of demand for palm oil production, given the need for this oil as raw material for food production is also very high. `With the purchasing power of the people who continue to improve, the industry is optimistic to boost production,` said Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto, Sunday (13/05/2018). In addition, the growth of palm oil production is also due to several other factors. For example, increment in purchasing manager index (PMI) and the rising of commodity prices. In the meantime, based on the Indonesian Palm Oil Entrepreneurs Association (Gapki) data, until February 2018 the production of oil palm oil refineries still shows a decrease of two percent or 3.4 million tons compared to the previous month. However, GAPKI Secretary General Togar Sitanggang said the production decline is quite reasonable. With stable production and non-increasing volume of exports, Indonesia`s palm oil stocks are maintained at 3.5 million tonnes by the end of February 2018. `In the coming month, export is expected to increase, especially to the Middle East and Pakistan since those country are also begin to prepare stock to welcome the month of Ramadan, `said Togar. The export volume to China are also expected to increase. This is related to China`s plan to raise tariffs on soybean imports from the US. Of course, China`s economic policy will further boost the demand for palm oil in the country. Indonesia, as one of the world`s largest exporters of palm oil production, is expected to get more demand from China.