Belitung (ANTARA) - Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi on Friday announced the revocation of a temporary ban on exports of crude palm oil; refined, bleached, and deodorized palm oil; refined, bleached, and deodorized palm olein; and used cooking oil.
"We altogether follow up on President Joko Widodo's directives to reopen the export of CPO and its derivatives. (Therefore), we revoke the Trade Minister's Regulation No. 22 of 2022 (to that effect)," Lufti said in a statement, accessed from Jakarta on Friday.
The Trade Ministry will allow exports of CPO and its derivatives from May 23, 2022, in accordance with the President's directives, he informed.
The decision to revoke the export ban has been laid down in the Trade Minister's Regulation. The new regulation contains provisions on the domestic market obligation (DMO) policy and supervision mechanism involving law enforcement officers.
The DMO on palm oil is meant to curtail rising cooking oil prices in the country.
The Trade Ministry, along with the relevant state-owned companies and business agents, will continue to expand access to bulk cooking oil through the Cooking Oil for People Program, Lutfi said.
Related news: Indonesia's CPO exports fell 2.56 percent in April
The program will be implemented using digital applications and will be synchronized nationwide, he added.
"Anybody can buy one-two liters of bulk cooking oil per day by showing an identity card. To date, there are more than 2 thousand places (selling bulk cooking oil). The number will be increased to 10 thousand in the near future," he disclosed.
Through the joint efforts, cooking oil supplies will slowly become abundant and the domestic cooking oil price will gradually fall amidst a spike in global CPO prices, he said.
"However, we must maintain the momentum together. Therefore, I call on all sides to comply with the rule in the interest of the entire Indonesian nation," he added.
Related news: Traders association supports CPO export ban
