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.
Biofuel producers continue to push for exports despite barriers
Exports made up more than 30 percent of the country’s biodiesel sales last year.
Change Size
Harvest time: A worker gathers oil palm fruit bunches at a plantation in Lampung. Indonesia and Malaysia, the first- and second-largest palm oil producers, have threatened to challenge the European Union via the World Trade Organization if the EU continues to phase out palm oil from transportation fuel. (The Jakarta Post/R. Berto Wedhatama)
T
he export market will remain attractive for biofuel producers despite “trade barriers” in the European Union and mandatory biofuel mix policy.
Local producers aim to export their products to increase profit, given the fact biodiesel commands a much higher price when sold to the European market rather than domestically.
“The export market is more attractive because it offers a better price, which could reach US$70 per ton higher than what we can get from the domestic market,” Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (APROBI) cochairperson Paulus Tjakrawan said Thursday.
Exports, such as that to the EU, United States and China, made up more than 30 percent of the country’s biodiesel sales last year at 5.33 million kiloliters, nearly 50 percent of total production capacity of 12 million kl.
Biodiesel exports in the first quarter of 2019 reached 173.543 kl, 78 percent up quarter-to-quarter at only 97,455 kl owing to EU antidumping duties on biodiesel imports.
Paulus also said efforts to secure export markets had also taken into account the amount of foreign exchange that could be gained from biodiesel exports, especially as a processed product.
“Besides that, we can’t lose in defending our products against their allegations. Otherwise, they will think we’re guilty [of producing unsustainable products],” he said.
