Palm Oil Industry Sees Opportunities in US-China Trade War

INDONESIAN palm oil industry sees opportunities to increase palm oil export as China and the US have embarked upon a trade war. China biofuel consumption is very high, while its soybean oil import from the US is also high. Meanwhile, this trade war doesn’t affect only to China and the US, but also to all countries since they will impose heavy tariffs to protect their domestic market. “The US exports a lot of soybeans to China. Since China have raised import tariffs, the price of soybean will automatically increase in China. This is our opportunity,” said Fadhil Hasan, Director of Corporate Affairs Asian Agri, Wednesday, (11/7/2018). Fadhil also said that opportunity to export to the US is also wide open. As of today, this trade war has decreased biofuel price. According to data published by Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki), the global price of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) on May 2018 has lost US$8,6 compared to previous month from US$662,2 per metric tons to US$653,6 per metric tons. CPO price is likely to decline since supplies from Malaysia and Indonesia are still high. In Fadhil’s opinion, oil palm harvest season start on next August so that production will be high. In This situation, the government has to push domestic consumption by increasing use of biodiesel (B30). The government has to seek new CPO market as well.  (News quoted from: Kontan.co.id)