A Note : Indonesian Crude Palm Oil
By not mean to ignore the environmental
NGOs campaigns in which they
claimed that the international trade in palm oil
is a key driver of rainforest destruction and human rights abuses on a massive
scale. However, the development of
the palm oil sector in Indonesia is interesting to be observed.
Obviously,
the strong growth of the oil palm plantation sector will bring economic
benefits to Indonesia. To realize these benefits, significant investments were
needed. Developing a new plantation often involves building a CPO mill as well,
and it takes a number of years before the plantation starts producing.
According to Jan Willem van Gelder (researcher from Netherlands) : On average, developing a new plantation
costs between US$ 2,500 and 3,500 per hectare. A CPO mill with a processing
capacity of 30 tons of FFB per hour is estimated to cost US$ 5 million.
I
strongly agree
that the
Indonesian government should give
serious attention
to this
issue. As
we know that there are hundreds of oil palm plantation
companies active in Indonesia. The larger plantation companies usually operate
their own CPO mill, while the smaller plantation companies sell their Fresh
Fruit Bunches to CPO mills of neighboring
plantations. While the total number of oil palm plantation companies is
very large, a limited number of Indonesian and foreign business groups controls
most of them. What
has been stated above are the real challenges for the Indonesian government
For
additional information, the unique composition of palm oil makes it versatile in its application in food
manufacturing, chemicals, cosmetics and in pharmaceutical industries. In this
thing seems we still need to learn to Malaysia. Currently, research bodies in
Malaysia such as Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Palm Oil Research Institute of
Malaysia (PORIM) and several Universities in Malaysia are actively modifying
palm oil in to better constituents having improved properties and new
applications. (By Andi Surya Amal)
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