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Palm oil exports fall by 14% in February: Gapki
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A worker checks freshly harvested oil palm fruit loaded onto a truck in Pangkalan Bun, East Kalimantan, in this file photograph. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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he country's palm oil exports, excluding biodiesel and oleochemical products, declined to 2.37 million tons in February, or 14 percent less than the 2.74 million tons exported in January, the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) has said.
The global price of palm oil stands at between US$652.50 and $685 per metric ton.
Gapki said in a statement The Jakarta Post received on Monday that the decline in exports was caused by the Chinese New Year holiday and the fewer days in February, when a lower export volume was recorded each year.
Meanwhile, cumulative exports from January to February reached 5.1 million tons, a 3 percent year-on-year decrease compared to 5.3 million tons in 2017.
Export demand rose 41 percent among Middle Eastern countries to 209,000 million tons in February from 148,060 tons in January. “The increased demand in the Middle East is a regular monthly cycle,” Gapki said.
Chinese demand increased by 6 percent to 326,300 from 307,49 in the previous month. Exports to the United States decreased by 50 percent to 95,990 tons from 193,470 tons in January, particularly due to that country's high domestic stock of soy beans.
Exports to India decreased by 26 percent, to Pakistan by 22 percent, to the European Union by 17 percent, to Africa by 16 percent and to Bangladesh by 4 percent.
The national palm oil production also decreased by 2 percent to 3.35 million tons in February from 3.4 million in January. (bbn)
