TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Palm oil stocks drop below 1m tons
Change Size
A worker checks fresh oil palm fruit bunches on a truck soon after harvest for PT Wanasawit Subur Lestari in Pangkalan Bun, East Kalimantan. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
A
surge in exports not followed by an equivalent production increase has caused the nation’s palm oil stocks to decrease to 888,000 tons in April, the lowest level so far this year.
Monthly stocks at the end of January, February and March were 2.8 million tons, 1.9 million tons and 1.3 million tons, respectively, data from the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI) shows.
Exports for the first four months of 2017 surged by 26 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 10.7 million tons. Exports in April alone were up by 6 percent month-on-month (mom) to 2.68 million tons.
Meanwhile, production in April only increased by 3.4 percent to 3 million tons.
A positive trend was seen in international sales to the European Union with an 8 percent mom increase to 482,950 tons in April and to countries with large Muslim populations approaching the Idul Fitri festivities.
Those countries include Bangladesh with a 116 percent mom increase to 124,950 tons, India with a 56 percent mom increase to 672,140 tons and Pakistan with an 18 percent mom increase to 207,210 tons.
“Exports to China, meanwhile, dropped by 38 percent to 201,120 tons as the country stocked more soybean oil amid a global glut,” said GAPKI executive director Fadhil Hasan in a press release.
Crude palm oil price showed an increasing trend to between US$695 and $750 per ton in the last week in May after posing at $683.9 per ton on average, or moving between $655 and $717.5 in April.
GAPKI predicts that prices will range between $700 and $750 per ton throughout June. (bbn)
