Indonesia is Ready to Supply Eight Million Tonnes of Palm Oil to Europe

By : Hariyanto And Aldo Bella Putra | Tuesday, September 26 2017 - 20:30 IWST

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta- Indonesia is ready to supply up to 8 million tons of sustainable palm oil to the European market to meet demand in the region, which is expected to reach 6 million tons by 2020.

"We are ready to supply not just 6 million tons, but 8 million tons of sustainable palm oil to the European market," said Secretary General of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI), Togar Sitanggang in Jakarta, Tuesday (26/9/217)

In the event "Festival Colorful Indonesia" in Paris, France, Saturday (23/9) Togar said, Indonesia is able to meet the demand of the European market, with the record, certified palm oil ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil) also can be accepted by countries European Union.

"Accepting ISPO certification means recognizing the credibility of the Indonesian government because ISPO certification is a mandatory standard enacted by the Indonesian government," he said.

Currently, he continued, the EU is composed of 27 countries is the second largest palm oil market after India, which, based on GAPKI data in 2016, sales of palm oil to the EU reached 6.6 million tons.

The world's largest palm oil market is India reached 10.25 million tons, while China ranked third at 5.15 million tons.

"And Indonesia remains the world's largest producer of palm oil with 33.4 million tons last year," he said.

In the event initiated by the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, Togar also explained the issue of deforestation addressed to the Indonesian oil palm plantation sector.

"Deforestation by Indonesia's oil palm is deforestation status, changing the status of forests into other uses (APL) areas, where most of the forests are no longer trees, trees have been cleared by previous HPH licenses," he said.

According to him, the expansion of Soyabean plantation is also more massive than palm oil.

In the last three years, the expansion of soyabean plantations in the world reached 8 million hectares. Meanwhile, oil palm plantation expansion is only 6.4 million hectares.

"And in Indonesia there is no more expansion of oil palm plantations because the government still impose a moratorium policy that has been running for five years," he said.