Overcoming The Scarcity Of Cooking Oil, Minister Erick Thohir Asks SOEs To Do This

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JAKARTA - The Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN), Erick Thohir, stated that the People's Palm Oil Program which he launched three months ago can be relied on to create market balance. Through the SOE collaboration program with the community, there are now 42 thousand hectares of land owned by SOEs whose management is in collaboration with the local community.

"If the (people's palm oil) program is implemented, there will be a balance, in which BUMN and the people can also play a role," said Erick, in a discussion, in Jakarta, as reported by Antara, Saturday, March 12.

Previously, Erick revealed, seeds were not given to the community because they were still obtained by importing. Meanwhile, now PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) has been able to produce its own seeds, so that it can be directly distributed to the community cultivating the land.

"PTPN provides seed cooperation to oil palm farmers. Later while waiting for the (palm) seeds to grow into oil palm, the farmers who work at PTPN, the results are offtakers," said Erick.

Not only that, continued Erick, his party has asked SOEs to switch at least a quarter of their production to be processed into cooking oil. From this policy, Erick claims to be able to produce a supply of 750 tons of cooking oil per month.

"But (the production) is also not enough, because the need for cooking oil per month reaches nine million tons nationally. So we knock the hearts of the private sector to also have a commitment, so that it can flood the domestic market," said Erick.

On this occasion, Erick also reminded the entire board of directors of SOEs that the functions carried out by SOEs were not only limited to a corporate approach, but also had to be able to intervene when the market was in an unbalanced condition.

"This smallholder palm oil program can be encouraged, of course in provinces that are strong in the palm oil sector," said Erick.