JAKARTA —
Indonesia will ban exports of palm oil starting next week, its president said
Friday, as the world’s biggest producer faces a shortage of cooking oil made
from the product.
اضافة اعلان
The Southeast
Asian archipelago has been running low on palm-based cooking oil since November
as producers turn to exports to cash in on an increase in prices around the
world.
Authorities now
fear the scarcity and soaring prices could provoke social tensions and have
moved to secure supplies.
“The government
will prohibit the export of raw materials for cooking oil and cooking oil
itself... until a deadline to be determined later,”
President Joko Widodo said
in a statement.
“I will continue
to monitor and evaluate the implementation of this policy so that cooking oil
in the country is abundant at affordable prices,” he added.
Officials introduced
limited curbs on palm oil exports in January, capped prices, and announced cash
subsidies for some Indonesians to compensate for rising food prices.
But the commodity
continued to become harder to find at markets and grocery stores, with long
queues appearing at many locations.
This week the
Attorney General’s Office accused an official in the trade ministry of
corruption for issuing export permits to palm oil producers when they had not
met domestic market obligations.
The office also
arrested several high-ranking officials at three of Indonesia’s big palm oil
companies, including Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, a subsidiary of Singapore-based
giant Wilmar International.
Palm oil is the
most widely used vegetable oil in Indonesia whereas crude palm oil is exported
worldwide for a wide range of uses, from cosmetics to chocolate spread.
Vegetable oils are among
a number of staple food items that have reached all-time high prices in recent
weeks following
Russia’s invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, according
to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
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