JAKARTA – Agriculture Minister (Mentan) Andi Amran Sulaiman said that Russia is seriously interested in importing palm oil from Indonesia. He did not elaborate on the volume of palm oil exports to Russia, but he ensured that it will be in large quantities.

“Interestingly, Russia wants us to increase export of CPO to the country. This is a big opportunity. It will bring positive impacts to our national industry of palm oil and the welfare of our palm smallholders,” Amran said when attending a family gathering of South Sulawesi in Jakarta on Sunday (22/06/2025).

According to Amran, a cooperation with Russia is part of Indonesia’s strategy to expand palm oil market beyond just the traditional markets, such as China and India. “The government is pushing up the CPO export to Russia as part of efforts to diversify the markets of palm oil and strengthen the position of Indonesia as the world’s largest producer of palm oil,” he said.

Russia has shown its serious intention through a formal invitation from the country’s Agriculture Minister Oksana Nikolaevna Lut to hold a bilateral meeting in October 2025 to discuss concrete steps to improve the strategic partnerships between the two countries. “We’ve received a special invitation from Russia’s agriculture minister to the meeting in October this year. There we’ll discuss about how we further increase our bilateral cooperation,” said Amran.

During a previous meeting at St Petersburg, on 19 June, Amran and Oksana discussed about five important agendas: Increasing investments in sugar sector, increasing Indonesia’s CPO export to Russia, joint development of fertilizer industry, meat import access from Russia, strengthening cooperation on research and agricultural technology.

The Indonesian government hopes that the collaboration with Russia will open new market access to Russia and other countries in the region and strengthen diplomatic and trade relations between the two countries, especially in agriculture sector. (*)