JAKARTA – The government of United Kingdom (UK) is seeking to increase the use of renewable energy sources. It will certainly create a bigger opportunity for Indonesia to export the raw materials for the renewable energy production to the country that has formally left the European Union (EU) since January 2020.
Indonesia’s Ambassador to UK, Desra Percaya said that the potential is getting bigger for Indonesia to export raw materials of the renewable energy production to UK. “The demand for renewable energy is increasing in the UK,” the Ambassador said in a press statement issued by the Indonesian embassy in London on Friday, 28 May 2021.
Ambassador Desra led a team of London embassy to visit Argent Energy, a producer of biodiesel in Ellesmere Port, the United Kingdom on Wednesday, 26 May 2021. The team was received by Argent Energy CEO Erik Rietkerk and its Field Manager Joe O’Kane.
“Almost 50 percent of the raw materials used by Argent Energy to produce biodiesel is the palm oil mill effluent (POME), which is mostly imported from Indonesia,” Rietkerk said during the visit.
Based on the fact, Ambassador Desra said that Indonesia has the chance to increase its export of POME to UK, particularly to meet the demand of Argent Energy.
“I invite Argent Energy to take the chance to import the POME from Indonesia,” said Desra, who had also made a visit to the plant of Argent Energy in Stanlow.
“A chance is also widely open for the company to invest in Indonesia to produce the biodiesel. This will support the sustainable supply chain of the palm oil in Indonesia. London Embassy is ready to facilitate such cooperation,” he said.
Argent Energy has planned to increase the import of POME from Indonesia up to around 250,000 tons in 2022, particularly because the quality of POME from Indonesia is better than that of other countries.
Based on data from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, in 2020 Britain imported palm oil from Indonesia (HS Code 1511 and 1513) at the total value of US$67.9 million, an increase of 10.2 percent compared to that in 2019 at the value of US$61.6 million.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is a non-ministerial department of the British government, which is responsible to collect taxes, payments of several state supports, and administration of other regulations that includes national minimum wage and issuance of national insurance numbers. (*)
Source: Antara/Media Indonesia | Featured image via bpdp.or.id
