The government has shown its commitment to defending the palm oil sector from a negative campaign waged by the European Union (EU), which has been resilient in its stance against the commodity in recent years. However, it has neglected several internal issues that may contribute to the EU’s anti-palm oil policy.

The absence of accurate data on oil palm plantations and low engagement with political EU figures may hamper the government’s efforts, according to Indonesia’s palm oil stakeholders.

Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDP-KS) president director Dono Boestami revealed recently that the organization had only three sets of data on the palm oil sector’s total land use in Indonesia, all of which come from state agencies. 

“How can we get a valid figure of our palm oil total production when we still don’t know the exact total area of our plantations? […] It’s unsurprising if we get criticized for our lack of valid data,” he said at a palm oil seminar in Jakarta. 

The three agencies that were able to provide palm oil data are the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Statistic Indonesia (BPS) and the Agriculture Ministry, who recorded 20 million hectares, 12-30 million ha and 14 million ha in oil palm plantations, respectively. 

Deforestation is one of the issues that the government has been trying to tackle as environmental groups and the EU have used it to criticize Indonesia’s palm oil products.

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