JAKARTA – The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) Chairman Eddy Martono has proposed to the government to use degraded lands for development of oil palm plantations, which will function as specially dedicated areas to supply crude palm oil (CPO) for production of biodiesel.
“Such specially dedicated palm plantation areas can become a solution to the problem of CPO supply shortage, if the government wants to upgrade the current mandatory biodiesel 35% (B35) program to mandatory B100 program,” he said.
Eddy said that the dedicated plantation areas should be managed by the state-owned plantation companies (BUMN Perkebunan) and the smallholders.
“Even the dedicated areas can become a solution to the problem of CPO supply shortage for production of food products, biodiesel and oleochemical which are projected to continually increase,” said Eddy.
“We need concrete solution to solve the problem of palm oil production as demand has been continually rising, while palm acreage keeps declining,” Eddy Martono said on the sidelines of public discussion on prevention of maladministration in the services of palm oil governance in Jakarta on Monday (27/05/2024).
According to Eddy, without such specially dedicated areas, the government’s target of biodiesel program will be difficult to be reached as production and productivity of oil palm plantations are stagnant and tend to decline.
“The realization of replanting program, which is sponsored by the government to increase palm oil production since 2017 until now is very low. Meanwhile, since the government applied its moratorium policy, there has been no new license for expansion of palm plantations,” he said.
According to Eddy, the current B35 program needs CPO at around 10.65 million tons per year and if the government upgrades it to B40 program, then it’s CPO need will increase to around 13-14 million tons per year.
It has been widely reported that President-elect Prabowo Subianto has planned to upgrade the biodiesel program to B50, which is a mixture of 50% fossil diesel fuel and 50% fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) derived from palm oil.
The B50 is expected to be realized in 2029. But before that the government has planned to upgrade the current B35 to B40 program.
Based on data from GAPKI, CPO production during 2023 reached 50 million tons. If the B40 program is implemented, then total local need of CPO for foods and energy will be around 24 million tons. (*)
Source: sawitku.id
