InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Biodiesel industries in Indonesia developed fast since the policy to mixture biodiesel and diesel was established in 2025. The government’s aggressive action significantly made it with its B35 program and the plan to increase the mixture up to B100.
Wiko Saputra, palm oil biodiesel governance researcher said that the national scale - biodiesel program would be significant to realize energy security in domestic – resource – base.
But Wiko said there would be technical field challenges that made palm oil production stagnant. “To realize B40, it would need the additional 2,5 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO),” he said in Diskusi Keberlanjutan Biodiesel, dengan tema “Mewujudkan Kemitraan Petani Dan Industry Biodiesel Dalam Pengembangan Biodiesel Sawit Untuk Kesejahteraan Petani Sawit“, Thursday (24/10/2024) in Jakarta.
He thought, the independent smallholders would play the significant roles to support biodiesel industries rather than only focusing to minimize the exports. For biodiesel got increased in demands, CPO needs did too. It is assumed that biodiesel demands get increased about 3% per year, CPO needs for biodiesel industries in this country would be reaching 34,35 million metric tons (MT).”
Indonesia has the big potential in the independent plantations that laid on 5,31 million hectares that could produce up to 14,87 million MT CPO per year or equal to 13,91 million kiloliters of biodiesel every year. Be said biodiesel supply chain model could not enable the independent smallholders to get additional values maximally. He proposed the new model that may enable them to supply their plantation production to mini palm oil mills that belonged to the smallholders’ groups and directly supply to PT Pertamina as the offtaker for biodiesel.
He also thought, many independent smallholders’ plantations got decreasing productivity and needed replanting. On the other hand, their institutions were weak still, the regulation about mini palm oil mill permit, was the issue, their knowledge about downstream sectors needs to get increased. Their data about name and address were not complete still and made the government difficult to confirm area preparation, legal, and preparedness to support biodiesel industries.
He also mentioned it would need to conduct strategic things to reinforce their plantation in biodiesel supply chain. If these succeed, there would be bigger advantages for them to escalate the sustainability in biodiesel industries in Indonesia. (T2)
