InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – It is undeniable that palm oil exports played crucial roles to maintain the trade balance of Indonesia. In 2021 to 2023, palm oil exports highly increased. It happened for the crude palm oil (CPO) got more expensive. In 2022, palm oil exports reached fantastic numbers up to US$ 39,07 billion, including its downstream products. but it got cheaper in 2023, and the exports got decreased to be US$ 30,32 billion.
On the other hand, CPO production in Indonesia in the past four years did tend to be stagnant. Palm oil consumption in this country got increased namely for the mandatory biodiesel policy that got expansion.
Data from Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA) mentioned, palm oil export volume in 2018 reached 77% of the total production but in 2020 to 2022, the numbers got decreased to be about 66%.
Not only export ration, palm oil plantation productivity got decreased. This happened for some plantations got older. The stakeholders in IPOA are still seeking for the breakthrough to recover the decreasing plantation productivity. One solution to do is to bring the new pollinator bees, Elaeidobius Kamerunicus Faust.
The small bee would be from Africa. It is believed to increase palm oil plantation productivity in Indonesia. Since in the Colonialism era, the stakeholders and smallholders depended on one kind of pollinator bee. Unfortunately, as times goes by, the pollinator bee’s performance got decreasing namely in rainy season. As the result, the pollination did not maximally happen. Palm oil production gets decreased.
The new Elaeidobius is believed not to get influenced by the bad climate. Even when the rain is hard, this kind of bee would pollinate always to confirm that every palm oil flower would be pollinated perfectly, would open the way to increase the harvest results.
Nevertheless, bring the new species into Indonesia would be hard. It needs collaboration among every stakeholder to confirm that the new pollinator bee would successfully be introduced into the plantations.
The question remains, would it directly happen? Of course, the process would not be as simple as we think about. But there would be big hopes for the smallholders and stakeholders that the new species would deliver good news for palm oil industries. To know about this topic, dear readers should read in Focus in Majalah InfoSAWIT, September 2024. (T2)