TBS Palm Oil Prices Fall as CPO Rises, Amran Says Anomaly and Requests Police to Come Down

Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman/PHOTO: Teddy Kurniawan-VOI

JAKARTA - Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman said the decline in the price of fresh fruit bunches or TBS palm oil was an anomaly. Because, the world crude palm oil or CPO price rose and the US dollar strengthened, but the price of farmers' TBS actually fell.

Amran said President Prabowo Subianto immediately asked the cause of the decline in TBS prices.

"I told him this was an anomaly. World CPO prices rose, the dollar strengthened by approximately 10 percent, CPO prices rose, but TBS prices fell. This does not make sense," said Amran at the Presidential Palace complex, Jakarta, Thursday, June 18.

Amran said the government had gathered palm oil business actors from across Indonesia. The meeting represented around 700 business actors, out of a total of around 1,900 palm oil mills (PKS).

He asked business actors not to play around with the TBS price because the impact was felt directly by farmers.

"Don't sacrifice the people. There are 15 million palm oil plasma farmers, with an estimated 30 million families," he said.

According to Amran, of the 274 companies that had not previously raised prices, most have now adjusted. He said that around 90 percent of TBS prices had returned to normal, while around 100 companies had not yet raised prices.

Amran said the Ministry of Agriculture had sent a letter to the National Police Chief to follow up on the issue. The letter was also sent to the regional police chief and special criminal directorates in their respective regions.

"There are still more than 100 that have not raised the TBS price. But we are confident that in the next week it will recover," said Amran.

He hopes that the one-stop system through DSI or PT Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia

can improve the governance of TBS prices and reduce leakage.