Coordinating Minister Luhut: The Government Will Immediately Fix FFB Prices For Farmers

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. (Photo: Doc. Kemenko Marves)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut B. Pandjaitan confirmed that the government is currently trying to find a balance between upstream and downstream targets related to cooking oil control.

"Currently, the price of cooking oil has reached Rp. 14,000 per liter in Java-Bali, so we can begin to relax policies on the upstream side carefully to accelerate exports and improve the price of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) at the farmer level," he said in a statement. cooking oil control policy evaluation meeting quoted on Saturday, July 2nd.

In addition, the Government will also continue to develop the use of Peduli Protect as a means of monitoring and controlling the distribution of cooking oil to anticipate another increase in the price of cooking oil in the market.

The government also agreed to immediately push for price adjustments for MGCR outside Java-Bali which are still not in line with the Highest Retail Price (HET). Coordinating Minister Luhut also asked the Ministry of Trade to speed up the implementation of the people's packaged cooking oil (MinyaKita) program.

"To accelerate packaged cooking oil, it is necessary to provide attractive incentives for producers, so that they can move faster and delivery is also easier because they can use ordinary distribution channels such as container ships, not having to use bulk ships," he explained.

In June, the government has allocated 3.41 million tons of exports through the transition and acceleration program. This allocation is given to provide certainty to the business world to export, and specifically for the transition program it can be used for the next few months.

By the end of June, the total bulk cooking oil distributed as part of the DMO for cooking oil producers had reached more than 270 thousand tons. Export allocation from the DMO program can also be used for 6 months, and part of it has been converted into export rights.

The government will also take steps to accelerate the realization of exports because the capacity of the tanks will soon be full again. In addition, this is also done considering the low price of FFB on the farmer's side.

"I ask the Ministry of Trade to be able to increase the export multiplier to 7 (seven) times for exports since July 1, with the main objective of increasing the price of FFB significantly for farmers," said Coordinating Minister Luhut.

On the other hand, one of the steps to increase the price of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) in the second semester is to increase B30 to B35/B40 and apply it flexibly depending on supply and price of CPO. Coordinating Minister Luhut also asked the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, BPDP-KS, and Pertamina to immediately review the plan so that prices can be controlled.

"I hope that all relevant ministries and institutions can immediately follow up on work related to this issue, so that the price of cooking oil can be immediately controlled and profitable for the community, farmers and entrepreneurs," concluded Coordinating Minister Luhut.