Mumbai – Three Asian countries India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, have vowed to jointly promote the benefits of palm oil for the global community during their participation at the Second Sustainable Vegetable Oils Conference (2nd SVOC) in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, 27 September 2023.

Indonesia’s Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga stated that India sees Indonesia and Malaysia as important and strategic partners and that the palm oil products from the two countries have brought in added values and positive effects to India.

“These positive effects of palm oil products need to be disseminated throughout the world so that there will be no misconception about palm oil,” Jerry told the participants of the conference, which was held at ITC Maratha Hotel in Mumbai.

He explained that he once argued with the European Union (EU) for being discriminative against Indonesia’s palm oil products after its decision to ban the use of palm oil for biodiesel due to their allegation that palm oil plantations have caused deforestation.

“I asked them back about how much forest cover they managed to preserve. They answered less than 20 percent. In  Indonesia, we manage to preserve more than 50 percent forest cover, while producing palm oil. So, the environmental issue (stated by the EU) is not relevant,” said Jerry.

Jerry is sure that the palm oil ban by the EU is just because of business competition. “The EU should be more open and also should not take the palm oil as a big environmental issue that should be tackled through the implementation of the EUDR (EU Deforestation-free Regulation) that is not relevant at all. That is why we are grateful that Malaysia and India are willing to unite with Indonesia to ensure that the global community is well-informed on the truth of palm oil,” he stated.

Meanwhile, a researcher from the Institute for Economic and Social Research of the University of Indonesia (UI), Eugenia Mardanugraha, said that the EUDR is part of Europe’s series of actions to control the prices of palm oil.

According to her, the regulation to prevent agricultural imports in relation to illegal deforestation is no more than the EU’s ploy to block Indonesia’s industrial development, including its palm oil industry.

“With the regulation (EUDR), the EU tries to control the international palm oil price,” Eugenia remarked. (*)

Source: TEMPO.CO

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