Indonesia to lift ban on palm oil exports

Govt will still be monitoring everything strictly to ensure demand will be met with affordable prices, says president

JAKARTA:

Indonesia will lift its ban on palm oil exports next week, President Joko Widodo said on Thursday, relieving pressure on the global vegetable oil market after prices spiked because of the suspension and the war in Ukraine.

The archipelago nation imposed the ban last month to secure supplies of the commodity, used in a range of goods from chocolate spreads to cosmetics, in the face of a domestic shortage.

“Based on the supply ... of cooking oil and considering there are 17 million people in the palm oil industry – farmers and other supporting workers – I decided that cooking oil exports will reopen on Monday, May 23,” Widodo told an online briefing.

“The government will still be monitoring everything strictly to ensure the demand will be met with affordable prices,” he said.

Authorities had rigorously enforced the export ban, with the Indonesian navy seizing a tanker carrying palm oil out of the country in violation of the order earlier this month.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2022.

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