Downstream Industry May Stop Palm Oil Negative Campaign

Economists have called on the government to boost palm oil downstream industry in trying to stop negative campaign on palm oil.  Palm oil needs to be developed to produce more various derivative products, such as cosmetics, cooking oil, soap, biodiesel detergen, medicine, paint, etc. Professor of Economic and Business of Padjadjaran University Ina Primiana said at a discussion in Industry Ministry’s Gedung Garuda, Jakarta Tuesday (21/8/2018). “This is a strategy to respond European Union’s restriction on Indonesian palm oil products. Local downstream industry needs to export palm oil processed products,” Ina, who is also a researcher at Lembaga Pengkajian, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan Ekonomi (LP3E) of Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said. In her opinion, price of CPO is always lower that its derivative products. For example, if CPO is sold for around US$800-US$1.000 per tons, than the price will increase if it is sold in form of cooking oil for around US$1.000-US$1.400 per tons. If palm oil is processed into glycerin, fatty acid, fatty alcohol, methyl ester, etc, then the price could be around US$1.400-US$2.000 per tons. ***