Newly re-elected chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (GAPKI), Joko Supriyono vowed to boost the organization’s cooperation with the government in order to expand palm oil exports.
Supriyono in a report carried on the official GAPKI website said that cooperation with the government was increasingly necessary considering the challenged faced by palm oil exports. He said that Indonesia needed to diversify and expand its palm oil markets.
“When talking about market expansion and handling of market obstacles, then it needs to be G-to-G and therefore cooperation with the government is necessary,” Supriyono was quoted in the report as saying.
Several major markets for Indonesian palm oil so far, including the European Union and the United States, are moving to ban the use of palm oil for biofuels or are planning to slap anti-dumping duties on Indonesian palm oil.
Supriyono who was re-elected for another term on the last day of a GAPKI national assembly on March 16, 2018, also said that said that the organization was also committed to supporting the government’s commitment to curbing on palm oil plantation expansions by focusing on the intensification of cultivation through increased productivity.
“GAPKI members have the commitment to reduced expansion through the optimization of intensification activities,” Supriyono said.
He, therefore, said that raising the productivity of smallholders’ palm oil plantations which account for about half of the country’s total palm oi cover, was another priority for the organization.
As part of the efforts to raise palm oil exports productivity, replanting was a major component as most palm oil crops cultivated by smallholders were usually not only from seeds of bad quality but also grown without the proper practice and thus resulting in low productivity.
GAPKI, he said was supporting the efforts by helping to accelerate the replanting in plasm plantation by trying to devise financing options for the replanting together with banks outside of the replanting grants provided by the Palm Oil Funds.
Plasm plantations operate in tight cooperation and partnership with palm oil companies which buy fresh fruit bunches at set prices under contracts.
“Up until 2017, the partnership in replanting covered 800,000 hectares and this will be raised to up to 900,000 hectares in 2019,” he said.
Raising smallholder’s productivity, he said needed not only the forging a partnership with small palm oil growers but also provide them with support for their operation
Unlike in the past, the GAPKI national assembly this year decided to extend the tenure of chairmen and executive boards from the previous three years to now, five years. The organization said in the report.