oil price setter: deputy minister

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Agriculture has set a target of making Indonesia the world’s largest palm oil producer by 2025, enabling the country to influence global prices of the commodity.

Indonesia targets to be palm

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sudaryono conveyed this goal during the 20th Indonesia Palm Oil Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Thursday, according to a ministry statement.

"Our target is for Indonesia to have the capacity to set prices as soon as possible," he said.

To achieve this, he urged farmers and palm oil entrepreneurs to view Indonesia’s palm oil plantations as high-priority agricultural areas requiring special attention to strengthen the national economy.

"Palm oil is our champion, our flagship commodity. Therefore, we need to treat it as something special," he said.

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Sudaryono emphasized that Indonesia has been working to intensify the downstream processing of palm oil, including producing B50 biodiesel, a higher-value product.

"B50 is Indonesia’s bargaining chip on the international stage. Even if other countries are not interested in the product, we could use it domestically. The presence of B50 gives us options to optimally absorb our palm oil outputs," he elaborated.

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He added that the government has carefully calculated how much palm oil to export and how much to allocate for domestic use. Sudaryono also noted that Indonesia already has the technology needed to produce high-quality oil palm seeds.

"We can assess the suitability of a seed for planting before it sprouts. This is important because we need to set a standard for our oil palm seeds," he explained.