MARKET DEVELOPMENT
SBY To Argue For ‘Green’ Palm Oil
SBY To Argue For ‘Green’ Palm Oil
29/08/2013 (Jakarta Globe) - Indonesia will use its status as host of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to push for crude palm oil to be included on a list of environmentally friendly goods eligible for a tariff reduction.
Indonesian CPO producers would benefit from an import tariffs cut of up to 5 percent from APEC member nations from 2015 if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono successfully makes his case at the Bali forum that starts on Oct. 1, a government official said.
Yudhoyono had urged the 21 APEC member nations to include CPO on the group’s green goods list at last year’s forum in Russia, but the proposal was opposed by the United States and other developed nations.
“We will successfully set an agenda with regard to the CPO issue at the APEC forum in October,” Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi declared on Monday.
Indonesian CPO producers face tariff barriers from countries including mass importers China, India and Pakistan, as these countries seek to limit penetration of foreign-produced CPO in their vegetable oil market.
In some developed countries, including the United States and Australia, CPO products also face non-tariff barriers, including verifying that the product did not originate from a palm oil plantation established on deforested peatland.
Deforestation of peatland produces vast amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing heavily to Indonesia’s net emissions of the greenhouse gas. Indonesia’s peatlands represent just 0.1 percent of the world’s land mass, but contribute 4 percent of global emissions, according to data cited by Greenpeace.
Indonesia — the world’s biggest producer of CPO — is regularly criticized by developed nations and environmental groups for destroying tropical forests to pave the way for palm oil plantations.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has deemed biodiesel made of palm oil a non-renewable fuel.
But Daud Dharsono, chairman of the sustainability committee at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki), said the association intends to prove that “CPO products produced [by Gapki members] are from sustainable processes.”
Daud said producers demonstrated at the forum of the International Conference on Oil Palm and Environment last year that the palm oil industry in Indonesia is developing into a model for sustainable agriculture.
Palm oil provides direct employment to 4.9 million workers in Indonesia, according to data compiled by Gapki. There were 8.9 million hectares of palm oil plantation in Indonesia last year.
Palm oil is also the second-biggest contributor to Indonesia’s foreign exchange earnings, after the oil and gas sector. Last year, foreign exchange reserves from palm oil stood at $21 billion.
Indonesian CPO producers would benefit from an import tariffs cut of up to 5 percent from APEC member nations from 2015 if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono successfully makes his case at the Bali forum that starts on Oct. 1, a government official said.
Yudhoyono had urged the 21 APEC member nations to include CPO on the group’s green goods list at last year’s forum in Russia, but the proposal was opposed by the United States and other developed nations.
“We will successfully set an agenda with regard to the CPO issue at the APEC forum in October,” Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi declared on Monday.
Indonesian CPO producers face tariff barriers from countries including mass importers China, India and Pakistan, as these countries seek to limit penetration of foreign-produced CPO in their vegetable oil market.
In some developed countries, including the United States and Australia, CPO products also face non-tariff barriers, including verifying that the product did not originate from a palm oil plantation established on deforested peatland.
Deforestation of peatland produces vast amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing heavily to Indonesia’s net emissions of the greenhouse gas. Indonesia’s peatlands represent just 0.1 percent of the world’s land mass, but contribute 4 percent of global emissions, according to data cited by Greenpeace.
Indonesia — the world’s biggest producer of CPO — is regularly criticized by developed nations and environmental groups for destroying tropical forests to pave the way for palm oil plantations.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has deemed biodiesel made of palm oil a non-renewable fuel.
But Daud Dharsono, chairman of the sustainability committee at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (Gapki), said the association intends to prove that “CPO products produced [by Gapki members] are from sustainable processes.”
Daud said producers demonstrated at the forum of the International Conference on Oil Palm and Environment last year that the palm oil industry in Indonesia is developing into a model for sustainable agriculture.
Palm oil provides direct employment to 4.9 million workers in Indonesia, according to data compiled by Gapki. There were 8.9 million hectares of palm oil plantation in Indonesia last year.
Palm oil is also the second-biggest contributor to Indonesia’s foreign exchange earnings, after the oil and gas sector. Last year, foreign exchange reserves from palm oil stood at $21 billion.