A Note : Indonesian Crude Palm Oil

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)