21/09/05 JAKARTA (Daily Times) - Indonesia is poised to export more palmoil to neighbouring India, the world’s largest edible oil consumer,following its move in cutting base import prices, an industry officialsaid on Tuesday.

Derom Bangun, chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association,expected the move would boost Indonesian exports to India by 10 percent,from the current 200,000 tonnes a month.

Last week, India cut base import prices for palm and soyoil. It buys nearyhalf of its annual needs of around 10 million tonnes in the form of palmoils from Malaysia and Indonesia and soft oils from Argentina and Brazil.

A cut in the base price reduces import costs as buyers pay import dutieson base values irrespective of the prices paid for the oil.

"This condition should push up crude palm oil (CPO) exports to India,because landed price for CPO and olein will be lower which makes us morecompetitive," Bangun told reporters.

About 30 percent of Indonesia’s palm oil exports, or 2.7 million tonnes,went to India last year. Bangun said disruption to plantation workerscaused by smoke haze from fires that stretched from Sumatra island toMalaysia in August would be insignificant to overall output this year."Not all plantations were affected. Thus, annual production may fallslightly, around one percent," he said.

In 2005, output from Indonesia, the world’s second-largest palm oilproducer after Malaysia, is estimated to rise by 13 percent to 13.6million tonnes, helped by maturing trees and yield improvements. reuters