Indonesian Palm Oil Industry Only Exports Raw Materials | Myth & Facts 3-03

FACTS – Despite its long history since the colonial era, Indonesia’s palm oil industry has only been accelerating since 2000, since the reform movement in 1998. In terms of time, the development of the palm oil industry in Indonesia has been different from that of the Malaysian palm oil industry, which developed earlier, or the European and United States vegetable oil industries, which have been developing for 100 years.

In the last 15 years the Indonesian palm oil industry has experienced a leap of development not only in area size but also in downstream industrialization. The industrialization of Indonesian palm oil is reflected in the changes of the composition of exported palm oil products (Table 3.3).

Palm oil products that Indonesia exported until 2011 were still dominated by Crude Palm Oil (CPO). However, after 2011 it changed. Processed palm oil exceeded the export volume of crude palm oil. Thus, the Indonesian palm oil industry has shifted from exporting crude palm oil to processed palm oil. Of course, the opportunity to further develop the downstream palm oil industry is still wide open.

Source: Myth & Facts 3-02 | Featured image via thejakartapost.com