West Kalimantan GAPKI Asks For CPO Export Faucet To Be Reopened

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Association of Indonesian Palm Oil Entrepreneurs (GAPKI) for the West Kalimantan Branch hopes that the export faucet of palm oil or CPO will be reopened so that through these activities it will have an impact on the country's foreign exchange earnings and employment.

"For many things, the export ban certainly has an impact where export taxes alone can make foreign exchange earnings from palm oil non-existent. Then from the side of job absorption, of course it will decrease," said Head of Gapki West Kalimantan Branch, Purwati Munawir in Pontianak, quoted from Antara, Wednesday. May 11th.

He explained that most of the palm oil business actors in West Kalimantan are CPO producers. If the export ban continues any longer then the factory's storage tank capacity is limited and will be full. With that activity can be reduced. That way it can have an impact on the workforce and others.

"Not to mention the absorption of community palm fruit, especially independent plantations. The factory's tank capacity is fulfilled, so the company can focus on its own plantations or plasma," he explained.

He said that currently the area of oil palm plantations in West Kalimantan has reached 1.9 million hectares with production reaching 4.96 million tons per year.

"The company's ownership of oil palm plantations reaches 1.17 million hectares or 61.39 percent and the rest is self-supporting with an area of 700 thousand hectares or 37.09 percent," he said.

In general, his party also understands and respects existing government policies. Then the West Kalimantan GAPKI intensively communicated with the association of downstream palm oil business actors so that the policy could be implemented optimally.

"We are also coordinating with the association of oil palm farmers in communicating any developments in the field as well as anticipating the impacts that may arise and waiting for further policies from the government that can overcome the problem of cooking oil scarcity, and open palm export faucets normally for the benefit of foreign exchange earnings," he said.