Commentary: Who's to blame for Indonesia's palm oil export ban?

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Indonesia's palm oil export ban isn't about domestic shortages, but more about the government's stand-off with industry over pricing, says a political analyst.

. While Jokowi, as the president is widely known, cited domestic shortages in cooking oil as his reason for the ban, the true picture is far more complex.

The set prices were part of a policy known as Domestic Price Obligation , designed to deliver cooking oil, one of the food staples in Indonesia, at affordable prices. The minister argued that by scrapping his own directive, oil traders would be less “tempted to export” cooking oil intended for the domestic market because of the price differences.

But Indonesian palm oil producers claimed that the government was scapegoating exporters. Togar Sitanggang, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Palm Oil Producers , denied that his members had a preference for the export market over its domestic counterpart, adding that recent export figures had actually indicated a downward trend.Instead, he pointed to the speed with which the government had implemented the price changes as the main reason for the chaos that followed.

. Continuing the ban indefinitely will only hurt both parties, given the size of the industry and its strategic importance to the Indonesian economy.

Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)

 

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