InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Senior economist, Faisal Basri re-said the issue about crude palm oil (CPO) selling price to be processed as food and biodiesel that delivered impacts to palm cooking oil price in the society. He thought, this issue would be the main cause of palm cooking oil price gets stagnant and does not get cheaper.

Faisal Basri told CPO that stakeholders traded to produce biodiesel would be more expensive because the government is encouraging biodiesel program that is mixed to fossil fuel in national level. The percentage of biodiesel program reaches 35 percent or known as B35 and would be escalating until B100.

In a discussion with the theme “Cerita Tentang Hulu-Hilir Sawit Hari Ini dan Esok: Dampak Kebijakan Biodiesel Terhadap Pasokan Minyak Goreng”, Faisal Basri said that the government created two prices that delivered impacts to price fluctuation of palm cooking oil in the markets “The government provided leeway (but) what is to blame is the exports. One thing to blame is biodiesel,” Faisal said.

He also told distortion in market mechanism that made palm cooking oil remain expensive though CPO gets cheaper. Palm cooking oil is about Rp 19.000 per liter while CPO gets cheaper.

To solve the issue, he encouraged the government to act by making CPO price the same both if it is processed to be food and biodiesel. This would reduce price fluctuation and escalate palm cooking oil stocks in the society.

He also emphasized that it is important to get ‘one price’ for the same product which means it is equalization. It needs supervision too. Faisal thought allocation supervision would escalate corruption potential and price equalization could be the wiser thing to prevent CPO price challenge in Indonesia. (T2)