Deliserdang – State-owned Enterprises (BUMN) Minister Erick Thohir made a visit to the project development of red cooking oil plant in Pagarmerbau district of Deliserdang regency in North Sumatra province last Friday, 06 January 2023.
The plant, which is the first of its kind in Indonesia, is fed with crude palm oil (CPO) to produce the red cooking oil. It is a pilot project developed by state-owned plantation holding company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) with the aim to help tackle the supply problem of cooking oil at domestic market as occurred for several months last year.
“This is a breakthrough of cooperation between the ministry of cooperatives, small and medium businesses, palm oil mills’ owners and the oil palm plantation fund management board (BPDPKS). It is aimed to help solve the problems of cooking oil supply at domestic market, preventing shortage of supply and ensuring that it is continually available at affordable prices for the public,” Erick said.
According to him, the project also involves oil palm smallholders. In the future, every 1,000 hectares of oil palm plantations will have a red palm cooking oil. This project development will be assisted with financing of KUR, a cheap loan facility sponsored by the government to help smallholders.
“This is important to annihilate the impression that we’re smart in development, but not smart enough in its maintenance. We’ll open its market locally and internationally, including to China,” he said.
PTPN Holding Company’s President Director M. Abdul Ghani said that the red cooking oil plant was initiated by PTPN Group. “We develop it as a pilot project by utilizing the technology already developed by PT Riset Perkebunan Nusantara and the Palm Oil Research Center (PPKS) as part of our subsidiaries,” Abdul Ghani said.
He pointed out that if the pilot project development is successful, then it will be implemented to other palm oil mills across Indonesia. “As the red cooking oil has multiple nutrition properties, including its richness in vitamin A, it will also help us in solving health problems like stunting and in empowering local economies across our country,” he concluded. (*)
Source: Analisadaily.com