The country, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, is experiencing a shortage of cooking oil.
Indonesia will ban exports of palm oil and other vegetable oils from next week, its president announced on Friday in the face of a shortage of cooking oil in the domestic market. The country is the world’s largest producer of palm oil.
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“Government to ban exports of raw cooking oil and cooking oil from Thursday, April 28, until a date to be determined latersaid President Joko Widodo. Indonesia has been experiencing a shortage of refined palm oil, the most widely used cooking oil in the Southeast Asian archipelago, since November as producers favored exports to benefit from rising prices. world prices for this commodity.
But the Indonesian government is worried about a development of social tensions in the face of rising food prices and the shortage of this key food. “We will continue to monitor and evaluate the application of this policy to ensure that cooking oil in the country is abundant and affordable.“, continued the president.
Long queues
Jakarta began in January to limit exports, with a new measure requiring producers to reserve part of their sales for the domestic market and imposing a maximum price. The president also promised in April the payment of bonuses to allow the most modest to stock up on oil. However, the supply of palm oil has become increasingly problematic in markets, shops and supermarkets. Long lines of consumers have been seen across the country in front of subsidized oil distribution centers.
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This week, the prosecution arrested a senior Commerce Ministry official on suspicion of corruption and accuses him of awarding export permits to several palm oil producers despite the fact that they did not fulfilled their delivery quota on the domestic market. The prosecution also arrested officials of three major palm oil groups, including a local subsidiary of the Singaporean giant Wilmar International.
Palm oil is the most consumed vegetable oil in the archipelago, which is also the world’s leading producer of this oilseed, which is widely exported for industry, from cosmetics to food products. Edible oils hit all-time highs in March due to insufficient global supplies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two major sunflower oil-producing countries.
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