JAKARTA, April 16 Asia Pulse - Low investment in research into theoleochemical industry has caused sluggish development of the crude palmoil-based industry in Indonesia, a researcher of the Indonesian Instituteof Sciences (LIPI) said.

"CPO industry's interest for research is very low. They are alreadysatisfied with profit from CPO exports, that's all," Roy Heru Trisnamurtisaid on the sidelines of a seminar on technology for palm oil productsThursday.Roy said the unwillingness to conduct research would hamper development ofthe downstream part of the CPO industry in the country.

"Higher profit from downstream products are enjoyed by other countrieswhile we are already satisfied exporting CPO. If we can process CPO, theresulting products will have a higher market value than CPO," Roy said.

"Such development should be supported by adequate research so thattechnology on palm oil and its derivatives will be mastered by Indonesia,especially for oleochemical industry," Roy said.

According to Roy, other CPO producers such as Malaysia and Thailand havealready developed research-based CPO industries.

"Malaysian plant oil palms in Indonesia, we send them the CPO, and theyprocess it into a high value products then sell it back to Indonesia. Ifwe can process it (CPO), the profit will be ours," he said.

The government could help the development of oleochemical research byproviding incentives to attract businessmen to put their investment inresearch.

Palm oil is one of LIPI's 11 competitive research fields where it hasconducted research and engineering of palm oil downstream industry since2003.

The research focused on esterification process to produce ester fat acid,surfactant, glycerin, including edible oil that could be applied in smalland medium scale palm oil industries throughout the country.

Indonesia is believed to be the world's largest CPO producer with 2.5 to3.5 million tons of production annually.

Most of the product is exported with less than 10 per cent being processedinto downstream products and three per cent processed into oleochemicalproducts.