Airlangga Claims CPO Export Ban For Abundant Cooking Oil Supply

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto claims that the temporary ban on the export of cooking oil raw materials has resulted in an abundant supply of bulk cooking oil in the country.

Airlangga said, after a temporary export ban was imposed as of April 28, 2022, the supply of bulk cooking oil was abundant up to 211,638.65 tons per month, or 108.74 percent of the need.

Meanwhile, the price of bulk cooking oil decreased from Rp. 19,800 per liter, now it is said to have touched Rp. 17,200 to Rp. 17,600 per liter.

Meanwhile, in terms of supply and domestic demand for bulk cooking oil, it is 194,634 tons per month.

Meanwhile, before the export ban was enforced, the supply of bulk cooking oil in March only reached 64,626.25 or 33.2 percent of the demand per month.

"Based on the supply data that is increasingly being fulfilled and the downward trend in prices in various regions, as well as to maintain the price of smallholder FFB, the President has decided to lift the export ban on May 23, 2022 or Monday next week," Airlangga said at a press conference. which was held virtually, Friday, May 20.

Airlangga emphasized that the lifting of the temporary export ban would be followed by efforts to ensure the availability of domestic cooking oil raw materials.

One of them is by re-implementing the rules of domestic market obligation (DMO) and domestic price obligation (DPO). The detailed rules will be regulated later by the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag).

For your information, the Ministry of Trade had previously implemented a 20 percent DMO, but it was considered not to be effective.

"This policy will be followed by efforts to ensure the availability of cooking oil raw materials. Once again I emphasize this to ensure the availability of cooking oil raw materials, by implementing the domestic market obligation (DMO) regulations by the Ministry of Trade and the domestic price obligation (DPO), which referring to the BPKP study, and this will also be determined by the Ministry of Trade," he explained.

Unfortunately, Airlangga did not specify the amount of DMO charged to each exporter of cooking oil raw materials. Even so, the amount of supply that needs to be maintained through DMO.

"We maintain 10 million tons of cooking oil consisting of 8 million tons of cooking oil and there is an availability of supply or as a reserve of 2 million tons," he explained.

In addition, the Ministry of Trade will also regulate the cooking oil distribution mechanism so that it is right on target.

Airlangga said that if the producers did not fulfill their obligations, sanctions would be imposed.

"Producers who do not fulfill DMO obligations or do not distribute to the public as determined by the government, will be given sanctions in accordance with the specified rules," he said.

Cooking oil distribution mechanism

Airlangga emphasized that the distribution mechanism will ensure the availability of supplies.

Later, he said, this supply will continue to be monitored by the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) through the SI MIRAH application.

Meanwhile, distribution to markets will also use a population data-based purchase mechanism (KTP).

Furthermore, Airlangga said that with this mechanism, it is hoped that the distribution of cooking oil can be right and on target.

"Once again, supply availability will continue to be monitored through digital applications at the Ministry of Industry, often referred to as the SI MIRAH system and market distribution will also use an ID-based purchasing system. Of course, the purchase target is expected to be right on target," concluded Airlangga.