JAKARTA – The government is urged to check into ownership status of private palm plantations following the lack of expected decline in the cooking oil price even after the export restriction policy last month. Ukay Karyadi, Head of the Indonesian Competition Commission (lit. Komisi Pengawasan Persaingan Usaha/KPPU), relayed the news in the press release quoted Thursday (2/6).
It is mentioned that there should be an audit in the palm plantation upstream, which involves approximately 70 cooking oil manufacturers but can be narrowed down to eight major companies. “These business owners usually have their own private plantations, dominating the upstream and downstream of the cooking oil industry,” Karyadi explained.
Furthermore, Marcelina Nuring, Director of Competition Policy of KPPU, believed that there is an inequity in the current palm plantation ownership. It is concluded after seeing the outcome of the study conducted by the Research and Development Centre of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency in 2019, which stated that the Cultivation Rights Land Inequality Gini Index has reached 0.77.
Then, the Statistics Indonesia (lit. Badan Pusat Statistik/BPS) and the Ministry of Agriculture in 2019 confirmed the inequality detected in the palm plantation ownership. “The number of the public/people’s palm plantation covers 99.92% of total palm plantation business owners. However, only 41.35% of them is rightfully managed. In contrast, the private palm plantation only makes up 0.07% of total plantation, yet controlling 54.42% of the area. (LK/ZH)