Sultan Asks Government Not to Follow Malaysia's Steps to Stop CPO Exports to Europe

15 January 2023 oleh admin

dpd.go.id - Vice chairman of the House of Regional Representatives (DPD) Sultan B. Najamudin asked the Government not to follow the policy of the Malaysian royal government which threatened to stop CPO exports to the European region.

This was conveyed by the former Deputy Governor of Bengkulu in order to ensure that the price of fresh fruit bunches does not decrease and harm farmers. On the other hand, the EU policy will be utilized by other potential CPO producing countries such as India to take over the European market.

"I don't think the government needs to make trade decisions that are actually detrimental to Indonesia's position as the number one producer of palm oil and CPO in the world today. Unless we have found potential export markets in other regions of the world," said the Sultan through his official statement on Sunday (15 /01).

According to him, even though CPO is widely used by consumers for various needs, the role of CPO can still be substituted by other vegetable oils sourced from plants other than palm oil. So to maintain the reputation of CPO as the most popular vegetable oil today by accepting the production standards required by Europe.

"The new European law is actually good for the government to show commitment and responsibility for protecting the forest environment. In this way, the extensification of palm oil corporations can be controlled and people's oil palm plantations can be specially appreciated by Europe," said the former young senator who is concerned with environmental issues.

On the other hand, said Sultan, oil palm plantations belonging to the people are considered capable of meeting the requirements set by Europe. The government is expected to be able to take advantage of this opportunity by limiting CPO exports to Europe and increasing the portion of CPO use in the B40 policy.

"Because until 2020, there are only oil palm plantations covering approximately 2.90 million ha which are in forest areas but without forestry permits, and the legal subject has not been identified. Meanwhile the total area of oil palm land is 16.38 million ha, and the area of land people's palm oil reached 6.94 million ha", he explained.

This means, continued Sultan, that there are only around 17 to 20 percent of our oil palm land that has the potential not to meet the requirements set by Europe.

As is known, Malaysia on Thursday (12/1/2023) threatened to stop CPO exports to the European Union (EU) as a form of protest against the region's discrimination against CPO commodities.

The new EU law (UU) will strictly regulate the buying/selling of CPO in an effort to protect forests.

So far, Indonesia and Malaysia have supplied 85% of the world's CPO. The policies of the two countries in the CPO sector will greatly determine the price of CPO in the global market. (*)