Apkasindo: Cooperatives Are Very Possible To Have Independent Palm Oil Processing

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers Association (Apkasindo) Kawali Tarigan said that it is very possible for cooperatives to have an independent palm oil processing industry, considering that oil palm land owned by independent smallholders and cooperatives reaches 42 percent of the total 16 million hectares.

"If we had our own factory, it would be enough with a production capacity of 15 tons/hour. In fact, in Pelalawan, Riau, the capacity has reached 30 tons/hour, with a land area of 7000 hectares," Kawali said at an event with the theme Oil Processing. Fried by Cooperatives: Challenges and Opportunities, through an official statement, quoted from Antara, Wednesday 18 May.

Thus, he said, independent smallholders are no longer dependent on various palm oil mills owned by large corporations.

"We can develop a lot of potential, so that farmers can also advance to class," said Kawali.

Furthermore, Apkasindo strongly supports cooperatives from owning factories and refineries (refiners) to suppliers of cooking oil with a capital contribution of around Rp. 100 billion.

As for some of the obstacles to realizing palm cooking oil owned by cooperatives, among others, plantations are still scattered, there is no market certainty, technology is still manual, venture capital, to large corporate pressures on farmers.

"However, there are also great opportunities that can be exploited. Namely, there is the Apkasindo Cooperative, abundant raw materials, and oil palm plantations in 22 provinces in Indonesia," Kawali said.

On the same occasion, the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs said that it stated that smallholder oil palm plantations which are still managed by small independent farmers with land ownership of about 2-4 hectares can consolidate to form farmer groups so that they can establish cooperatives.

The existence of this consolidation is expected to be able to realize a pilot project for the development of the smallholder palm industry in 2022 as an effort, among others, to develop red palm oil (Red Palm Oil) as a solution to overcome the problem of availability and price of cooking oil.

"It must be immediately mapped. Then, we will accompany it. So that the independence of oil palm farmers to have a bargaining position in the small-scale palm oil industry can be realized," said Deputy for Cooperatives at the Ministry of Cooperatives, Ahmad Zabadi.