Rows Of Palm Oil Conglomerates Enjoying The Blessings Of Rising Cooking Oil Prices: Martua Sitorus, Anthony Salim, Eka Tjipta, To Sukanto Tanoto

JAKARTA - The commodity boom has brought its own blessings to business actors in the country. How not, the price of goods belonging to this natural resource has received high appreciation in foreign countries. For example, coal and palm oil are currently on the rise.

In terms of state income, the export of these superior commodities plays a major role in raising Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP). In fact, until November 30, 2021, the PNBP sector was recorded to have penetrated 128.3 percent of the Rp298.2 trillion ceiling.

Like a double-edged sword, the commodity boom seems to have brought a bit of a problem in price formation in the country. Even though Indonesia has the status as the world's largest producer of palm oil, the implications of rising prices are also felt by our society.

From the information gathered by the editors, the highest retail price for cooking oil (a derivative product of palm oil) is IDR 11,000 per liter. However, the facts on the ground state that the price has touched Rp. 18,000 for every one liter.

In fact, the big players in the national palm oil processing industry can be counted on the fingers. They are believed to have played a major role in fulfilling the national supply of palm oil even in the world.

So who are the snappers who are currently enjoying the commodity boom? Here's a summary of the VOI for readers.

Salim family

As a large conglomerate since the New Order era, the Salim family is very close to the plantation commodity business and food processing. Through the Indofood flag, this clan has succeeded in controlling a number of important markets in Indonesia.

Is Indofood Agri Resources Ltd. which is the main pocket of the Salim group in the oil palm plantation business. Through their subsidiaries PT Perusahaan Perkebunan London Sumatra Indonesia Tbk (LSIP) and PT Salim Ivomas Pratama Tbk (SIMP) they released Bimoli, Delima, and Happy as cooking oil brands in the Indonesian market.

Sukanto Tanoto

Sukanto Tanoto is a national businessman who owns Royal Golden Eagle International (RGEI), previously known as Raja Garuda Mas. The two main businesses of RGEI are the paper and pulp industry and oil palm plantations.

Specifically for oil palm, Sukanto Tanoto founded Asian Agri and Apical which later processed this commodity into the Camar trademark. According to VOI records, oil palm plantations affiliated with RGEI reach a total land area of 160,000 hectares.

Eka Tjipta Widjaja's family

Eka Tjipta Widjaja is a top Indonesian conglomerate who founded the Sinar Mas Group. This corporation has various lines of business. Starting from property, telecommunications, to plantations.

In the plantation business, Sinar Mas has entered into the cultivation of oil palm through PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology Tbk (SMAR). Meanwhile, the cooking oil product introduced to the market by Sinar Mas is Filma.

Bachtiar Karim

Together with Burhan and Bahari, Burhan and Bahari founded the Musim Mas Group which is listed as one of the largest palm oil companies in Indonesia. It is reported that in 2019 this corporation managed to record sales of 6.6 billion US dollars.

Several local cooking oil products released by the Musim Mas Group include Sanco, Amago, and Voila. Bachtiar Karim's success in reaching domestic and foreign markets made him the 11th richest person in Indonesia with an estimated net worth of 3.1 billion dollars.

Martua Sitorus

Through Wilmar, Martua Sitorus has established himself as one of the important players in the national palm oil industry. He released Fortune and Sania brands for the domestic market. Meanwhile, Wilmar's source of production is concentrated in West Sumatra with oil palm plantations reaching hundreds of thousands of hectares.

One of the achievements made by Martua Sitorus was bringing Wilmar into the ranks of the world's largest palm oil companies in 2018. So it is not wrong if the well-known global economic media, Forbes, had time to ordain himself as the king of Indonesian palm oil.