The Jakarta Post (03/02/2022) - The government’s hasty decision to impose on palm oil producers domestic market obligation (DMO) that amounts to 20 percent of their export volumes for crude palm oil (CPO) and olein seems to have been prompted more by frustration over its inability to understand why cooking oil prices have risen more than 40 percent over the past year. When the government launched the DMO policy for palm oil producers on Jan. 28, it did not elaborate on the technical details on how the policy would be implemented or which institution would manage and supervise the DMO. We even doubt that the government is apprised of the whole structure of the palm oil industry, as evidenced by the spate of four different decrees Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi issued between Jan. 11 and 28 to cope with the debacle over cooking oil prices.

This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title "Cooking oil debacle is palm oil conundrum". Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2022/02/02/cooking-oil-debacle-is-palm-oil-conundrum.html.