Tuesday, November 11 2003 - JAKARTA, : Indonesian officials and crude palmoil (CPO) producers plan to visit China next week in a bid to boostexports of the commodity, Agriculture Minister Bungaran Saragih said.

China’s palm oil import quotas are expected to rise to 2.7 million tonnesnext year from 2.6 million tonnes this year.

China is one of the world’s largest edible oil consumers.

Malaysia dominates the Chinese palm oil market, while Indonesian exportsaccount for around 15 per cent of China’s total import quotas.

Our output has steadily climbed in recent years and Indonesia shouldincrease CPO exports to China, which currently are at 400,000 tonnes,Saragih told reporters late yesterday.

Indonesia is expected to produce 9.5 million tonnes of CPO in 2003, upfrom 9.4 million tonnes last year.

Government officials, local producers and the Indonesian Palm OilCommission will visit China’s booming southern city of Guangzhou onNovember 11.

The minister also said Indonesia may not increase current palm oil baseprices as planned to secure local supply because cooking oil prices hadmoved down in the last couple of days.

They have fallen to 5,000 rupiah a kg (100 rupiah = RM0.047) from 5,500rupiah earlier this month.

I don’t think it’s necessary now as local producers have guaranteed tosupply the needed cooking oil of between 150,000-300,000 tonnes ahead ofEid-al-Fitr, he said, referring to the end of the Muslim month of fastinglater in November.

Base prices are used to calculate export taxes.

Palm oil base prices have not changed for more than two years, but theGovernment was planning to raise them due to concerns over high exportsboosted by soaring world prices.

Indonesia sets base prices at US$160 a tonne on CPO, US$175 a tonne onrefined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil, US$165 a tonne on crudepalm olein, US$190 per tonne on RBD palm olein, and US$35 a tonne on palmkernel.-Reuters