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Palm oil key in Prabowo’s goal to achieve food and energy security
Prabowo has committed to accelerating Indonesia’s transition into renewable energy by expanding the mandatory mix of 35 percent palm oil in diesel fuel (B35) to B40 next year.
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A worker collects oil palm seeds at the Namorambe plantation in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, on May 12, 2022. (AFP/Andi)
President-elect Prabowo Subianto’s reiteration last week that palm oil would be one of the key elements of his economic development strategy simply shows his full understanding that energy and food self-reliance is the key to achieving prosperity for the country's 280 million people.
Our experiences so far have indeed proven that the lack of these two aspects has been the main cause of macroeconomic instability, inflation and even poverty.
Fortunately, palm oil has increasingly become the main source not only of cooking oil and numerous other consumer goods but also biofuel, and Indonesia has become the world’s palm oil producer with an annual output of over 50 million tonnes.
Prabowo reiterated the key role of palm oil when he recounted his meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron late in July, whereby they touched on the issue of the European Union’s plan to ban palm oil imports from Indonesia under the EU Deforestation Regulation which will be enforced later this year.
“I bluntly told President Macron that the upcoming EU ban on palm oil imports from Indonesia is a blessing in disguise as that policy will strengthen our resolve to use that commodity to support our food and energy security," Prabowo recounted in a speech at the national congress of the National Mandate Party (PAN) on Sunday.
At the Qatar Economic Forum in May in Doha Prabowo also asserted the strategic role of palm oil in Indonesia’s energy and food security. At present, palm oil and its derivatives have become the second largest foreign exchange earner, and a major employer in rural areas as smallholder farmers own about 40 percent of the estimated 16.5 million ha of oil palm plantations in the country.
Prabowo, who will take over from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Oct. 20, has committed to accelerating Indonesia’s transition into renewable energy by expanding the mandatory mix of 35 percent palm oil in diesel fuel (B35) to B40 next year. He said If implemented, the program could save the country US$20 billion a year in diesel oil imports.
