Jakarta – Some inquiries have shown that the palm kernel shells (PKS) have become a rising star of Indonesian exports at the global markets, especially in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Poland, and several other countries.
The PKS are the fractions of shells derived from crushing the nuts (inner part) inside the palm fruits. Crushing of the nuts produce the palm kernel oil (PKO), while crushing of the palm fruits (outer part) produce crude palm oil (CPO). Having high calorific content, as they still contain the residue of palm oil, the shells are used as an energy source to generate power plants.
Through the exports of the PKS, the Indonesian government receives foreign exchange at a total of US$250 million and around US$55 million in tax income per year.
Data from the Indonesian Palm Kernel Shells Association (APCASI) shows that during the last decade, the production of PKS in Indonesia has been continually increasing. During 2019, Indonesia’s PKS production reached 9.97 million tons, with export volume reaching 1.72 million tons or around 17.25 percent from the total production.
Currently, Indonesia produces around 48-50 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) per year, which is derived from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) harvested from oil palm trees. Usually, the CPO is around 23 percent of the FFB, the PKS around 5-6 percent, and the rest are wastes and biomass.
“Our export of PKS is only between 1.7–2.0 million tons. That means around 18-20 percent of the total. Where goes the rest? Mostly absorbed by domestic industries, especially the palm oil mills for generating power plants. We can still find a lot in remote areas, but useless due to a problem of logistics,” APCASI Chairman Dikki Akhmar said recently.
The PKS is growingly used as biomass for heating and generating power plants in many countries. Japan, for example, has turned to the use of bioenergy after the tragedy of Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011. But actually, it is mainly driven by the energy policy of Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry (METI), which includes the palm shells as the source of biomass into its feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme. Based on the policy, power plants which use PKS as its primary energy source to generate power will get incentive more than 1.5 Yen per kWh. Until now, Japan has exported around 1.2 million tons of palm shells per year from Indonesia.
Dikki said that based on the policy it is just logical that members of APCASI managed to ensure long term contracts with Japanese companies which operate power plants. “Some of them secured contracts of 10 years, and even 15 years,” he said.
Former chairman of BPDPKS, Bayu Krisnamurthi said that apparently not only the palm oil, but the palm shells also have the bright prospect. “It has been indicated by the rising demand of palm shells from several countries, including Japan,” he said.
“Can you imagine its impact to the oil palm smallholders. Their profit will not just come from palm oil, but from the biomass, especially the palm shells, they produce. Of all commercial plants, it is oil palm that produces the largest biomass. Oil palm plantations produce around 28 tons of biomass per hectare,” Bayu said.
He further said that Indonesia should learn its lesson from its gas production, which was sold at much lower prices as the government at that time (1980s) only prioritized the oil production as the source of energy and the source of state income. “We shouldn’t repeat the case of natural gas. We sold it at lower price, and then we bought others at higher prices but in lower quality. The government should make a well-designed policy and strategy in utilizing the palm biomass. It has a very good quality as the source of bioenergy and is friendly to the environment. That is why many foreign countries are seeking to import it,” he concluded. (*)
Source: wartaekonomi.co.id | Image via sjai.co.id
