SURABAYA – The Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Board (BPDPKS) said that the use of oil palm biomaterials can increase the sales value of various products of creative industry sector.

BPDPKS Research and Development Committee Member Agus Haryono said that based on the category of the ministry of tourism and creative economy (Kemenparekraf), the use of oil palm biomaterials as raw materials has raised the economic value of products in 7.0 subsectors of the 17 subsectors of creative economy in Indonesia.

Speaking during the Indonesian Palm Oil Research Week (PERISAI) 2023 in Surabaya, Agus was quoted by Antaranews on Thursday, 26 October 2023 as saying that the palm biomaterials can be relied on as a source of raw materials for production of a variety of downstream palm oil products in the future.

He said that the promotions on the use of palm-based products are expected to increase the absorption of various products based on oil palm materials. “Such palm product expansion will help the oil palm growers in increasing their efficiency and profitability by relying on a variety of palm-based products and not only on the crude palm oil (CPO),” said Agus.

He cited as an example the trend of cosmetic products made from vegetable oils, which include palm oil. By using the vegetable oils, the producers can help protect environment as they are sustainable and also increase their economic value.

“Cosmetic products are increasingly more natural and becoming bioproducts. I’ve seen lotion cosmetics produced by a startup, which can be used by divers without damaging corals,” he said.

According to him, there are a number of factors that have caused the rising popularity of cosmetic products based on the palm biomaterials. First, regulations on the cosmetic industry is not as strict as that of the drug industry.

Second, unlike the food and beverage industries the cosmetic industry is not influenced by prices. Third, the cost of research and development (R&D) in the cosmetic industry is cheaper.

He said that the same trend has been also now seen in the fashion industry. Currently, fashion products made from palm biomaterials are mushrooming.

“For example, fashion products made from algae, bioplastic, biobased, and biodegradable materials. They can be actually made from vegetable oils,” Agus said.

He mentioned a survey from Biofabricate which states that classification of products claimed as biomaterial-based products should contain at least 50% biomaterials. If they are below 50%, they are not considered as biomaterial-based products. (*)

Source: sawitkita.id