Palm Oil Industry Foreign Exchange Contribution Reaches IDR 151.5 Trillion As Of May 2024

East Belitung Regent Burhanudin (left), ANJ Group Director Moch. Fitriansyah (center) and GAPKI General Chair Eddy Martono (right) (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

EAST BELITUNG- palm oil industry has made a large contribution to the country. As of May 2024, the palm oil industry was recorded to provide foreign exchange to the country amounting to 9.78 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 151.5 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of Rp. 15,495 per US dollar).

This was revealed by the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Palm Oil Entrepreneurs Association (Gapki) Eddy Martorno in the Palm Oil Contribution Presstour for the State Budget and the Economy in EAST Belitung, Wednesday, August 28.

"As of May 2024, the contribution of palm oil to foreign exchange is 9.78 billion US dollars or here 10.01 percent of our exports are non-oil and gas," explained Eddy.

Although the palm oil industry's contribution is quite large, Eddy said the lift was down when compared to previous years. This is in line with export performance which has decreased.

In 2020, continued Eddy, the palm oil industry had contributed around 22.7 billion US dollars. Then in 2021 when COVID-19 rose to 34.9 billion US dollars.

In 2022, it was recorded that it rose again to 37.7 billion US dollars. Then, in 2023 it decreased again to 29.54 billion US dollars.

"In the last five years, our production has stagnant," he explained.

Based on data presented by Gapki, in 2020 the production of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives reached 51,583 tons. Then, in 2021 it slightly decreased to 51,300 tons. In 2022, production was also recorded to have decreased again to 51,248 tons.

However, production of CPO and its derivatives rose again in 2023 to 54,844 tons. Meanwhile, as of May 2024, production was recorded at 22,145 tons.

Eddy said that reflecting on this amount, palm oil production still needs to be increased. One of them is by realizing the people's palm oil program (PSR).

"Our productivity is also not encouraging. Why is that? Because indeed we should have replanted mainly for palm oil for the people," he explained.

However, Eddy admitted that replanting was not easy because he faced many obstacles in the field. Starting from overlapping land to overlapping policies.

"Well, we are a bit late here, this PSR. So that our productivity is not going up, it actually goes down. Our production is stagnant," he said.