Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The upward trend in fat and oil product exports, which are dominated by crude palm oil, continued in June despite a fall in the country's non-oil exports during the month.
Indonesia's total exports fell 2.98 percent to US$9.42 billion in June from the previous month. But compared to the figure for the same month last year, total exports rose 11.40 percent.
""The decline in total exports in June was due to a 3.96 percent decline in non-oil and gas exports from $7.9 billion in the previous month to $7.6 billion,"" Central Statistics Agency (BPS) head Rusman Heriawan reported Wednesday in Jakarta.
He said that the biggest decline in non-oil and gas exports was in the metal ores and ash category, which decreased by $132.3 million, or 20.8 percent, from $634 million in May.
Meanwhile, the biggest increase was in the fat and oil product category, which rose by $128.8 million, or 19.2 percent, from $669.6 million in May.
Other factors contributing to the decline in total exports were a 2.25 percent decline in exports of industrial products and a 16.71 percent fall in exports of mineral products.
As for the oil and gas category, exports increased by 1.34 percent from $1.78 billion in May to $1.8 billion in June, with crude oil exports, which increased by 12.92 percent to $790.7 million, being the largest contributor, followed by oil exports, which rose by 32.8 percent to $300.9 million.
Despite the slip in monthly exports, Rusman said that total exports in the first semester of this year had grown strongly to $53.6 billion, representing a 14.3 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Rusman said there were five main export categories that had shown significant growth since May. These were CPO, nickel, organic chemicals, iron ore and aluminum.
Meanwhile, according to BPS records, fat and oil product exports have been the biggest contributor to non-oil and gas category over the past few months, with the value of these exports rising to $798.4 million in June, up from $669.6 million in May and $711.1 million in April.
The BPS figures also show that in the first four months of this year, India was the the biggest importer of CPO with a total of 710 million kilograms worth $357 million, followed by Singapore with 168 million kilograms worth $86 million, and the Netherlands with 149 million kilograms worth $72 million.
In the wake of increasing CPO exports, which have led to the recent increase in cooking oil prices due to a scarcity of raw materials, the government hiked the export tax on CPO by $64 from the previous $558 per metric ton to $622.
Meanwhile, the country's total imports fell 8.57 percent in June to $5.93 billion, giving the country a surplus of about $3.49 billion for the month, up from $3.2 billion in May.
The main factor behind the decline in June imports, Rusman said, was that imports of oil and gas decreased by 14 percent from May to $1.62 billion in June, while non-oil and gas decreased by 6.33 percent to $4.3 billion.
The decrease in oil and gas imports was due to a decrease in crude oil imports of 15.8 percent to $714 million, and a decrease in ""other oil products"" imports of 11.5 percent to $910 million.
