Indonesia Domestic Cooking Oil To Rise Ahead of Ramadan

TheIndonesia.co - Indonesia's trade minister, Zulkifli Hasan on Monday, January 30th said that oil cooking producers must increase supply to the domestic market by 50 percent for the next three months to meet rising demand ahead of Islamic religious festivities, Ramadhan. 

Currently, the country requires producers to sell 300,000 tonnes of cooking oil in a month to meet domestic consumption at a capped price. However, traditional market merchants complained that they have difficulties in securing supply, and the price has surpassed the price cap. 

"To meet the increasing demand for cooking oil ahead of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr, the government and the cooking oil producers will expand the domestic market obligation program to 450,000 tonnes per month from February to April 2023, a 50 percent increase from the current allocation of 300,000 tonnes per month," Minister Zulkifli said in a statement.

The Indonesian traditional market association said that the price of unbranded cooking oil is Rp 16,000 (USD 1.07) per liter, above the ceiling price of Rp 14,000 per liter, and supply is scarce.

In January, Indonesia reduced palm oil export shipments from eight times to six times more than producers' domestic sales. 

A trade ministry official, Budi Santoso, said the new domestic sales volume would not affect the export-to-domestic sales ratio.