JAKARTA – Indonesia’s Ombudsman has urged the government to establish a national palm oil board to improve the governance of palm oil industries in the country. Yeka Hendra Fatika, a committee member of Indonesia’s Ombudsman a national institution authorized to supervise and improve the implementation of public services, said there is an urgent need for improvement of palm governance from upstream to downstream of Indonesian palm oil industries.

“How the problem of governance is resolved? The solution is the establishment of a national palm oil board. This board should function as a one-stop integrated institution with full authority to manage the palm oil industries from upstream to downstream,” he told the participants of a special discussion on the role of Indonesian palm oil industries to support economic growth, food and energy self-sufficiency in Jakarta on Wednesday (7/5/2025).

According to Yeka, in 2024 the Ombudsman conducted a systemic review on the governance of Indonesia’s palm oil industries by reviewing 52 institutions across the archipelagic country during the period of six months. “Based on the review, Ombudsman has formulated five suggestions for improvement to the government with regard to the palm oil governance in Indonesia. The suggestions include resolution to the overlapping condition of oil palm plantation areas with forest areas, improvement of licensing system and data collection of smallholders’ plantations, improvement of regulations on establishment of palm oil mills, trading policy to ensure the price of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from smallholders, and the formation of a national palm oil board which is structurally directly under President,” he said.

Two weeks ago, the Ombudsman had also sent a formal letter to President Prabowo Subianto as a follow-up step to resolve the problems found on the ground by Ombudsman. “Based on the systemic review, we managed to formulate five suggestions to the government , which we have included in the letter we sent to President two weeks ago,” he said.

According to Yeka, the downstreaming process in Indonesia is the best in the world and so far there has been no country able to emulate it. But there is still problems in the upstream sector that needs extra attention from all stakeholders.

“I think if we talk about downstreaming process in the palm oil industries, the one in Indonesia is the best in the world. It seems there is no country having the capability to emulate it. But in the upstream, we still have problems that should be seriously addressed,” Yeka was quoted by Ombudsman website as saying on Thursday. (*) Source: sawitindonesia.com