The government of Indonesia has announced that it has decided to ban all exports of palm oil in order to ensure enough supply on the domestic market.
The restriction doubles down on an earlier measure enacted in February, which required local producers to set aside 20 percent of their expected exports for domestic consumption. The Indonesian officials, later, clarified that they would only halt exports of a highly-refined palm oil product, RBD palm olein.
Crude palm oil exports may continue as before. The back-to-back announcements took markets by surprise, and edible-oil prices briefly surged.
Indonesia is the world’s biggest supplier of the world’s most popular edible oil, and the news made it appear that it would be suddenly exiting the market – just two months after Ukrainian sunflower oil exports were shut down by a Russian blockade.—TLTP
