JAKARTA – The Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Board’s (BPDPKS) Chairman Eddy Abdurrachman said that Indonesia needs a comprehensive research on the global position of Indonesian palm oil commodity as part of efforts to design an effective strategy to deal with the increasingly tougher competition at the global market.
Eddy Abdurrahman said that the research is particularly important for Indonesia in dealing with the European Union Deforestation-Free Regulation (EUDR) that will be implemented soon by the European Union (EU).
“We need a comprehensive research on global position and strategy and how to improve our competitiveness at the global market. So far, there have been many researches financed by BPDPKS,” Eddy said during the Indonesia Palm Oil Research and Innovation Conference and Expo (IPORICE) in Jakarta, on Tuesday (13/08/2024).
According to Eddy, BPDPKS will organize a palm oil research event in October 2024 in Bali. “This research event will feature research results in seven main areas: cultivation, biomaterial, bioenergy, health foods, post-harvest, environment, socio-economic, and information technology,” he said.
According to him, BPDPKS has recently provided fund for researches conducted by 40 groups of students across Indonesia.
He said that the results of the researches will be presented and disseminated during the research week event.
“We invite you all to take part in the Indonesian research week event that we’ll hold in Bali in October this year,” said Eddy.
BPDPKS, which was established in 2015 based on the presidential regulation (Perpres) No.61/2015, is authorized to collect, and manage what is called palm oil funds for development of sustainable palm oil in Indonesia.
According to Eddy, regarding its research fund, BPDPKS has distributed it under the program called ‘Grant Riset Sawit’ (Palm Oil Research Grant). “BPDPKS has established partnerships with 88 research and development (R&D) institutions, including the National Research and Innovation Board (BRIN). So far, BPDPKS has financially supported more than 300 researches. We’ve also collaborated with the Association of Indonesian Inventors, which functions as a bridge between the researchers / inventors and the industries,” he said.
“The inventors association evaluates and connects the inventors with the industries for commercialization of their inventions. So far, there have been 15 inventors who already signed letters of intent with their investors,” he said. (*)
Source: news.majalahhortus.com
