08/09/2012 (TEMPO Interactive) - Indian Research and Information Foundation, Godrej International Ltd, stated that Indonesia has hidden palm oil reserves. According to the President of Godrej International, Dorab Mistry, the total of Indonesian palm oil reserves could reach 4 million metric ton per month, twice the previous estimated numbers.

“It is difficult to be bullish about palm oil prices,” said Mistry in a press conference at Singapore yesterday.

The tropical oil may trade between 2,900 ringgit ($930) and 3,300 ringgit a ton this month and next, he said. The most-active contract slumped as much as 2.6 percent to 2,913 ringgit a ton on Malaysia Derivatives Exchange today.

The reserves in the two largest producers may limit price gains even as soybeans, which can be crushed to produce a rival oil, are poised to extend a record rally after drought curbed supplies. Benchmark palm oil in Malaysia has dropped 8.2 percent this year, helping restrain gains in global food costs spurred by the worst U.S. drought in more than half a century. “The big story of 2012” is the stockpiles in Indonesia, Mistry said, according to a copy of his remarks. “Normal stocks of palm products in Indonesia in the last two years have been of the order of 3.5 to 4 million tons, as against the normal, conventional guesstimate of 1.5 to 2 million tons.”