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Palm oil in focus during Anwar’s first overseas visit to Indonesia
Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s largest palm oil exporters, have agreed to build stronger collaboration to further develop the palm oil market and to combat discrimination against the commodity.
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Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reacts while talking with President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, Jan. 9, 2023. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
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ndonesia and Malaysia, the world’s largest palm oil producers, have agreed to build stronger collaboration to further develop the palm oil market and to combat discrimination against the commodity.
The commitment was made following a meeting between President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the Bogor Palace in West Java on Monday.
“We have agreed to strengthen [our] cooperation through the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries [CPOPC] to increase the market for palm oil and to fight discrimination against palm oil,” Jokowi said during a joint press briefing after the bilateral talks.
Anwar, meanwhile, did not mention palm oil in the press briefing. But during a public lecture hosted by Indonesian media mogul Chairul Tanjung’s CT Corp, which was attended by many of Jokowi’s political adversaries but not the President himself, that Indonesia and Malaysia were looking to form an organization similar to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for palm oil.
"I have just spoken with Pak President and we agree that there should be an OPEC-like organization to defend our interests in palm oil," Anwar said during the lecture. “We have tried a united front since 2015, but it has not borne fruit yet.”
The European Union is looking to phase out palm oil by 2030, Reuters has reported. It passed a law last month that prevents companies from selling palm oil along with other products that are linked to deforestation.
Jokowi expressed his disapproval of the policy during the EU-ASEAN Summit in Brussels last month, saying that the law’s inflexible approach would hurt Indonesia's development.
