Businesspeople Optimistic in CPO Export Despite Discrimination in the EU

Palm oil businesspeople remains optimistic and confident in CPO export despite the discrimination in the European Union as demand from China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are still high. “As a single market the EU is a huge, but in term of consumption the biggest markets are China, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh not to mention Indonesia as domestic market. Those markets have huge potential to grow,” Finance Director of PT PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya (ANJ) Tbk Lukas Kurniawan said as reported by Antara (30/3/2019). Lukas said that the Government has taken giant step to absorb palm oil in domestic market by implementing B20 mandatory program which is going to be enhanced to B30. The program will increase palm oil demand in domestic market. Earlier, the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) expressed optimism over reaching export increase. Gapki said CPO export is likely to advance further 4%-5% in 2019, even though domestic demand will be higher due to the implementation of B20 mandatory program. In 2018, Gapki recorded, CPO and its derivatives total export rose 8% to reach 34.6 million tons from 32.1 million tons in 2017.  However, in terms of value, CPO export declined 11% in 2018 to US$20.54 billion from US$22.97 billion in 2017. In 2018, CPO and its derviatives shipment to India reached 6.71 million tons, to the EU 4.78 million tons, China 4.41 million tons, to the US reached 1.21 million tons and to other nontraditional markets reached 6.44 million tons. ***