By Choirul Fuadi)*
CIDISS – Oil palm products, such crude palm oil (CPO) and their derivatives from Indonesia always get barriers to entry into EU countries because the price is cheaper, thus threatening the commodity of biodiesel that derived from corn and sunflower commodities.
However, the government responds quickly to EU action that complicates the entry of CPO products. “One of the taken steps is to work on a new market for Indonesian CPO products,” said Head of Trade and Development Development Agency (BP3) of the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag), Kasan Muhri.
According to him, the government will make a breakthrough market prospects in Africa. The countries in Africa are South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique and Tunisia. Then it will also be entry to the market to China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and even the United States.
However, as demand for vegetable oil in China and India is slow, some countries in the Asia Pacific region are showing increasing demand for palm oil.
That means, it is an opportunities for Indonesia and Malaysia to increase the supply or market penetration in the region.
Malaysian Minister of Agriculture and Commodities Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong, as reported by The Star, revealed that palm oil imports by Asia Pacific countries are expected to grow 350,000 tons in 2017, and will increase to 692,000 tons by 2020.
In the region, said Mah, Malaysia controls an average market share of 65%. As for countries in the ASEAN region import palm oil and palm oil products worth Rp25, 8 trillion from Malaysia.
Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar are the largest importing countries in ASEAN with a value of Rp7.1 trillion, Rp5.5 trillion and Rp2.8 trillion, respectively.
)* The author is CIDISS Contributor
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