Published on 29.04.2022
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Indonesia » Jakarta suspends all palm oil exports.
Indonesia began to apply a complete embargo on its palm oil exports yesterday, at the risk of destabilizing an already high vegetable oil market. The country is the world’s largest producer.
The Southeast Asian archipelago has been facing a shortage and soaring prices of palm oil-based cooking oil on its domestic market for several months and fears a rise in social tensions.
In a last minute reversal on Wednesday evening, the authorities clarified that the embargo would affect all exports of the oilseed, and not only products intended for edible oils, as indicated a day earlier.
President Joko Widodo stressed that supplying the population was “the highest priority”. “As the biggest producer, it’s ironic that we have difficulty getting cooking oil,” he acknowledged.
The country suffers from distribution problems. Producers prefer to sell their stocks internationally to take advantage of rising prices. ATS/AFP