GAPKI: Palm Oil Production In March Improves, Stock Increases

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki) said palm oil production in March experienced a seasonal increase of around 12 percent from February to 4,349 thousand tons for CPO from 3,883 thousand tons in the previous month and 413 thousand tons for PKO from 369 thousand tons in the previous month.

Gapki's Executive Director, Mukti Sardjono added, contrary to production, exports actually fell from 2,912 thousand tons in February to 2,641 in March.

"The largest decline occurred in processed palm oil products, which fell from 2,254 thousand tons in February to 1,880 thousand tons in March," he said in a statement to the media quoted on Saturday, May 13.

He added, based on the destination country, the decline in exports occurred for China's (-242.8 thousand tons), Egypt & the Middle East (-129.4 thousand tons), Bangladesh (-50.5 thousand tons), India (-68.3 thousand tons), the Netherlands (- 54.9 thousand tons) and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the increase in exports occurred for the United States, Spain, Italy, Russia, and Pakistan.

The decline in exports caused the export value to fall from 2,687 million US dollars in February to 2,259 million US dollars in March, although the CIF Rotterdam CPO price for March was 1,030 US dollars per ton higher than the February price of 997 dollars per tonne.

"Unlike the price of palm oil, other major oil prices for March actually experienced a decline of -9.9 percent for ex-mile Ditch FOB, -9.4 percent for NW Europe and -12.1 pers for Dutch FOB Ex-mile flower seed oil," Mukti explained.

Then domestic consumption also increased to 1,812 thousand tons from 1,803 thousand tons in February.

Consumption for the food industry rose to 911 thousand tons from 802 thousand tons, for the autochemical industry it rose to 187 thousand tons from 185 thousand tons, while for the biodiesel industry it fell to 714 thousand tons from 816 thousand tons in the previous month.

With the change in production, consumption and exports, the stock at the end of March rose to 3,138 thousand tons from 2,765 thousand tons in the previous month. "Paying attention to the price of other major vegetable oils that have dropped, it is very likely that the price of palm oil will soon be interested in falling," concluded Mukti.