JAKARTA, May 30 — Indonesia’s trade ministry has received a number of palm oil export permit requests that could be granted within the day, senior ministry official Veri Anggriono said on Monday.
Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, allowed exports of the vegetable oil to resume from May 23, but companies have faced regulatory hurdles that have slowed the process of getting shipments out.
“As of this morning, there were five to six companies that submitted a request and the system will immediately process them. We hope the permits can be issued today,” Veri said.
He said Indonesia aims to allow 1 million tonnes of palm oil exports based on companies’ volume of domestic sales under the government’s bulk cooking oil programme, which was launched before the export ban.
Veri did not specify a timeframe for the export allocation.
To maintain supplies of cooking oil at home, the government has implemented a so-called Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) for palm oil and has required exporters to supply palm oil for the government’s programme for bulk cooking oil distribution.
The volume companies are allowed to export will depend on their refining capacity and the demand for cooking oil at home, a trade ministry regulation showed last week.
Veri said the ratio of the exports allocation and the domestic distribution puts the DMO at around 20 per cent.
Eddy Martono, secretary-general of Indonesia Palm Oil Association (GAPKI), said he hoped exports could soon return to pre-ban levels of 2.5 million to 3 million per month.
Indonesia in April imposed a three-week export ban in hopes of controlling soaring domestic prices of cooking oil. The policy shocked a global vegetable oil market already under pressure from a sunflower oil shortage caused by the war in Ukraine.
— Reuters
