The Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Board (BPDPKS) Chairman Eddy Abdurrachman has again reminded the importance of researches for the advancement of Indonesia’s palm oil industry. “We need to continue conducting researches to find solutions to the challenges that keep coming to the palm oil industry,” he said at the opening ceremony of the Indonesian Palm Oil Research Week 2023 (PERISAI 2023) in Surabaya on Wednesday, 25 October 2023.
Themed with “Reinforcing Palm Oil Industry in Combating Global Challenges through Technological Innovation”, the Research Week Event is aimed to introduce the results of researches to all palm oil stakeholders, and other related industries and the general public.
“The funds collected by BPDPKS from the palm oil industry players are used to finance a number of strategic programs, which include the research and development, human resource development, replanting for smallholders, development of plantation facilities and infrastructure, biodiesel development, promotion and advocation. The results of researches are needed by industry players and regulators to develop the sustainable palm oil industries, to design the right policies, and to counter the negative campaigns against palm oil,” he told the participants of the research event, which consists of convention and exhibition.
According to him, BPDPKS has launched its research program since 2015. So far, BPDPKS has funded a total of 329 researches under cooperation contracts with 88 research institutions which involve 1,202 researchers in 19 provinces.
To commercialize the researches, BPDPKS has partnered with the Association of Indonesian Inventors (AII) which functions to assess the aspects of technology and commercialization of the research results. “There have been 30 inventions that are ready for commercialization and some of them have drawn the interest of investors. They have realized their commitments with the signing of Letter of Intent (LoI) and non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on the proprietary technologies,” he said.
Previously, during the Talk Show: “Road to PERISAI 2023” in Serpong, South Tangerang, on Wednesday, 27 September 2023, the Palm Oil Agribusiness Strategic Policy Institute (PASPI) Executive Director Dr. Tungkot Sipayung underlined the importance of innovations to maintain the leading position of an industry or commodity. The innovations can only be derived through continuous activities of research and development.
Indonesia, as the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil, will continue facing challenges both in national and global markets. The challenges include increasingly tougher competition at the global market with other vegetable oils, especially sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, and soybean oil, and the growing awareness of global community on the need to implement the green principles to maintain sustainability and to protect the environment.
According to Tungkot, the competition with other vegetable oils has shifted from price competition to non-price competition by targeting the preferences of global consumers on the palm oil. In doing so, the palm oil haters have vilified the palm oil with their false claims without any scientific evidence. Initially, they focused on the health aspect, then they shifted to environmental claims and later to human rights and social issues.
“Previously, Europe focused its negative campaigns on the aspect of human health. They tried to hype that palm oil is the culprit of cholesterol. But then through a series of researches, global scientists proved that vegetable oils, including palm oil, contain no bad cholesterol that causes heart disease,” said Tungkot.
He pointed out that besides the market competition, Indonesia can actually solve many other crucial problems through the pursuance of researches. “We can stop our rising imports of vitamin A and E, as palm oil is rich in such vitamins. But so far, those vitamins are made useless in the industry,” he said.
Tungkot also mentioned the problems related to Indonesia’s reliance on imports of fossil fuels to meet its continually rising need and of petrochemicals to meet rising need of petrochemical industries. “To solve those problems, we have biodiesel to substitute diesel fuel and oleochemical which can be derived from palm oil to substitute the petrochemical,” he said.
He added that the palm oil industry is also facing the problem of fertilizer. “We don’t have a strong basis for the production of fertilizer. We also still rely on inorganic fertilizers. Other challenges include our need of new innovation to mitigate the risks posed by natural phenomena like the El Nino, which is predicted to affect palm oil production,” said Tungkot.
But above all, he reminded that the survival of any industry and commodity is very much dependent on the researches and innovations. “Without continuous innovations, any industry will decline and eventually die. That’s what happened to the industries of tobacco and spices in the past. And at least 50 global companies disappeared from the global economic scene as a result of not pursuing innovations,” he asserted.
Indeed, history, especially the history of vegetable oils, has proven that the researches and innovations are the key factor in sustaining any industry and commodity. Early in 20th century a series of researches had enabled Procter & Gamble to create a game changer in the edible oil industry. It managed to transform the pesky leftover of cotton seeds in the cotton industry from unwanted waste to highly wanted waste, which was sold under the Crisco brand. It toppled the animal fats as the main source of edible oil and catapulted the cottonseed oil into its fame as the new main source of edible oil. As a pioneer, the cottonseed oil ushered in a new era of vegetable oils that will be later followed by other vegetable oils, such as sunflower, rapeseed, and soybean. Then it was also due to researches, including the important one on weevil pollination to replace manual pollination that revolutionized palm oil production in 1980s, palm oil managed to gain a leading position in terms of productivity, efficiency, and versatility with a total market share of more than 35 percent at the global market of vegetable oils.
But Tungkot reminded that nothing remains unchanged. Challenges will keep coming on its way toward future development, trying to erode its global competitiveness. “That’s why innovations and researches are a must for our palm oil industry to keep its glory,” he concluded. Benget Besalicto
