InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – The government’s plan through Ministry of Trade to get crude palm oil (CPO) reference price through Badan Pengawas Perdagangan Berjangka Komoditi (Bappebti) is welcome by the stakeholders and smallholders in South Sumatera.

Analyst of Psp Ahli Madya, Plantation Agency South Sumatera Province, H. Rudi Arpian said, the plan to have CPO reference price in local exchange would deliver price certainty for the planters. It would be different if CPO refence price is determined by other countries which should depend on other country – condition.

“For example, if the demands get higher, but Rotterdam exchange makes it cheap, we would be getting loss,” Rudi said, as in the official statement to InfoSAWIT recently.

He also mentioned, for all these years the planters in many countries, including in Indonesia refer to two main exchanges – MDEX in Malaysia and Rotterdam in Netherland. Indonesia as the biggest palm oil producer in the world, he continued, does not have its own price reference. “Rubber and coffee do not either. Tin is the only commodity that has price reference,” he said.

He hoped, by every authority, Indonesia could determine CPO, rubber, and coffee reference prices through the local exchange. “It means, the Laws Number 32 about Commodity Exchange which was published in 1997 could be realized this year,” Rudi said. (T2)