DPD RI Asks Government To Stop Corporate Palm Oil Expansion And Build Own CPO Processing Industry

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Deputy chairman of the Regional Representative Council (DPD RI) Sultan Bachtiar Najamuddin asked the government to strictly supervise and evaluate the oil palm plantation industry corporations that tend to be uncooperative so far. Following the appointment of a high-ranking oil palm plantation company suspected of being involved in the mafia practice of regulating the cooking oil trade some time ago.

According to him, the government's courage to intervene in the market must start from the beginning with a win-win solution policy scheme for private oil palm plantation business players. At present, it has monopolized nearly 56 percent of Indonesia's 16.4 million hectares of palm oil land. The Sultan assessed that efforts to protect national interests must be carried out in various ways, including stopping expansion or limiting land tenure in a measurable manner to palm oil conglomerates. "Don't let the oil palm plantation companies that own the production equipment dominate the use of land given by the state through the Hak Guna Usaha (HGU) scheme," Sultan said to reporters, Tuesday, April 26.

"So they don't feel superior, let alone be stubborn against the government's Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) provisions," he continued. At this time. He considered, there should be the construction of CPO and cooking oil factories themselves which are managed by BUMN and BUMD.

However, the Sultan appreciates the government's policy intervention which has surprisingly closed the faucet for CPO exports. Although it must be admitted that it also has a direct impact on the decline in the exchange rate of oil palm farmers in the region. "Hopefully this policy will not last long, and the government will immediately renew the national palm oil industry management system in a professional and proportional manner," he concluded.