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Breaking News, Jokowi will ban Palm Oil export starting in 28 April 2022

You are now just trying to salvage your argument at this point because you were proven wrong on percentage basis. And before you ran off to absolute size, bear in mind that Europe has much more landmass than Indonesia’s archipelago. So Europe is still doing worse than Indonesia despite its green propaganda. Cmon Europe, you had 150 years after the industrialisation age that saw massive deforestation of Europe and you can only manage to return to 35%?


Anyway, where did you get the 1000 million (1 billion!) hectares of forest in Europe? Official Eurostat site shows 159 million hectares at most.

Is mathematics that bad indonesia? You obviously dont know how percentage work. Question, why do forests in europe grow and in indonesia get destroyed?
 
Is mathematics that bad indonesia? You obviously dont know how percentage work. Question, why do forests in europe grow and in indonesia get destroyed?

Ah personal attacks, is that how far your brain can function?

Let me dumb this down for you, kiddo. Percentage is relation between two numerical entities in proportion to each other. In this case we have two numerical groups, first the landmass, second is the size of the forest.

If the proportion of forest in Europe is 35% in relation to its landmass, that means for each hectare in Europe, only 0.35 hectare is covered by forest in Europe. Meanwhile, the proportion of forest in Indonesia is 51% to its landmass, which mean for every one hectare in Indonesia 0.51 hectare is covered by forest. You know that 0.51 hectare is bigger than 0.35 hectare right? Just making sure you are catching up here.

Europe has more landmass than Indonesia yes, but that does show that deforestation level in EU was more severe than Indonesia because Europe also cleared more forest than Indonesia. Yea you can say forest in Europe is increasing bla bla bla but its actual forest hectare related to its landmass hectare is still smaller than that of Indonesia despite all the hums and bums of reforestation effort. Come back here when its forest ratio is bigger than Indonesia kiddo.
 
Ah personal attacks, is that how far your brain can function?

Let me dumb this down for you, kiddo. Percentage is relation between two numerical entities in proportion to each other. In this case we have two numerical groups, first the landmass, second is the size of the forest.

If the proportion of forest in Europe is 35% in relation to its landmass, that means for each hectare in Europe, only 0.35 hectare is covered by forest in Europe. Meanwhile, the proportion of forest in Indonesia is 51% to its landmass, which mean for every one hectare in Indonesia 0.51 hectare is covered by forest. You know that 0.51 hectare is bigger than 0.35 hectare right? Just making sure you are catching up here.

Europe has more landmass than Indonesia yes, but that does show that deforestation level in EU was more severe than Indonesia because Europe also cleared more forest than Indonesia. Yea you can say forest in Europe is increasing bla bla bla but its actual forest hectare related to its landmass hectare is still smaller than that of Indonesia despite all the hums and bums of reforestation effort. Come back here when its forest ratio is bigger than Indonesia kiddo.

Why doesnt indonesian forests grow?
 
Jokowi Targets Rehabilitation of 600 Thousand Hectares of Mangrove Forest by 2024

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President Joko Widodo has set a target to improve the condition of damaged mangrove forests in Indonesia. Currently, Indonesia is known as a country that has the largest mangrove forest area in the world, which covers an area of about 3.4 million hectares.


JAKARTA -

President Joko Widodo targets the rehabilitation of mangrove forests in the country to reach 600 thousand hectares within the next three years.

"Our target is that in the next three years we will repair it, we will rehabilitate 600 thousand hectares of our total mangrove forest area," said the man who is familiarly called Jokowi after planting mangroves in Bebatu Village, Sesayap Hilir District, Tana Tidung Regency, North Kalimantan. , on Tuesday (19/10).

He explained that the replanting of mangroves is in order to repair the damage that has occurred to mangrove forests in the country, especially since Indonesia is a country that has the largest mangrove forest in the world.


Data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2015 shows that currently the area of mangrove forests in the country reaches 3.4 million hectares, of which about 1.8 million hectares are in a damaged condition.

Jokowi said that the rehabilitation of mangrove forests is needed to protect the land from sea waves, sea water intrusion which can cause mixing between sea water and ground water and to protect the habitats and species that exist in the forest area.

"And in North Kalimantan, there are 180 thousand hectares of mangrove forest which we will look at in more detail and will rehabilitate," he said.

Appreciation for Ambassadors of Friendly Countries

On this occasion, Jokowi replanted mangrove forests in North Kalimantan with a number of ambassadors from friendly countries and the surrounding community. The Ambassadors also appreciated the government's efforts to repair damaged mangrove forest areas.

Brazil's Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia, Daniel Barra Ferreira, said the plan to rehabilitate mangrove forests in a number of areas proposed by President Jokowi demonstrates Indonesia's serious commitment to sustainable development.

Meanwhile, the Finnish Ambassador to Indonesia Jari Sinkari also said that the rehabilitation of the mangrove forest would bring many benefits to Indonesia.

“I come from a country that has a lot of forests, but we don't have mangroves. But I understand that these mangroves are very efficient at absorbing carbon dioxide. So in my opinion if you want to expect a lot of benefits from one type of forest, mangroves are a very good choice. And I congratulate the Indonesian government for choosing mangroves," said Sinkari.


In addition, the Director of the World Bank for the territory of Indonesia and Timor Leste, Satu Kahkonen, said that the program is not only to save Indonesia, but also to save the world.

“This program that has been initiated by President Jokowi and the Indonesian government is very important for Indonesia and the whole world. This is the largest mangrove restoration program in the world, and therefore we applaud the efforts of the Indonesian government,” said Satu.


WALHI: Fixing Sources of Mangrove Forest Destruction

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) Campaign Coordinator, Ode Rakhman, appreciated the government's efforts to rehabilitate the mangrove forest. However, he stressed that in addition to replanting efforts, the government must also find out the main cause of the damage to the mangrove forest.

"Because if the rehabilitation process is carried out, but if the source of the damage is not resolved, the figure of 600 thousand hectares is actually nothing," Ode told VOA.

He added that the 600 hectare figure listed in the mangrove forest rehabilitation plan would not have much meaning if the damage and exploitation of the mangrove forest continued.

According to WALHI's monitoring, the main sources that cause damage to mangrove forests include the expansion of pond areas, infrastructure development, development of tourism areas, and the development of special economic zones (SEZ) targeting coastal areas in which there are mangrove ecosystems.

Therefore, Ode appealed to the government to remove government policies, especially for infrastructure development targeting mangrove ecosystems. In addition, he said law enforcement must also be firm and not indiscriminate.

"Whether it's for a national strategic project, but if it targets the mangrove ecosystem and then violates the rules, the government must be firm that the development policy must not eliminate the mangrove ecosystem," he said.

 

Malaysia unable to cash in on rising palm oil prices​


Wednesday, 11 May 2022

JOHOR BARU: Malaysia is unable to take advantage of the rising prices of crude palm oil due to an acute labour shortage, lament Felda settlers.

It has been an ongoing problem since movement control orders were enforced due to the pandemic some two years ago, said Felda Ulu Tebrau village chief Ab Jalil Sahlan, adding that many foreign workers had packed their bags and left for home.


Also Read: Plantations at a breaking point

“We don’t have enough manpower now as there are only a handful of foreign labourers working at palm oil plantations, which is an issue for settlers besides the rising cost of fertilisers,” he said.

“Settlers are complaining that the lack of workers has affected the quality of the oil palm fruits because they can’t harvest them in time, which may cause them to rot.”

According to Ab Jalil, an oil palm plantation worker receives a monthly wage of between RM1,800 and RM2,000. And despite the monthly salary, locals don’t like working under the sun and have opted to work at factories instead, he added.

“There are talks that Felda is looking to bring workers from Bangladesh to replace Indonesian labourers but many settlers are quite hesitant, as they foresee many issues, including communication issues,” he said.

Felda Malaysia Youth Council president Mohd Fadzli Hasan admitted that the issue had become a problem but said that it is being proactively addressed with new measures to lessen dependency on foreign labourers.

The council has introduced a programme to interest youths in plantation jobs such as harvesting, which has attracted about 3,000 third-generation Felda settlers nationwide.

“Besides that, we are using machines to make it easier for settlers to harvest and drones to spray pesticides, which are faster than conventional means,” he said, adding that there are currently 22 Felda youth trained to pilot drones.

According to Mohd Fadzli, the council is also looking at setting up an academy to instruct Felda youngsters on taking care of palm oil trees.

“They will have to start from the bottom and work their way up, they will have to be a labourer first before becoming a plantation manager,” he said.

He said this is not a stopgap measure for addressing labour shortages, but a long-term solution to reduce dependency on foreign workers.

The countries supplying workers are also making higher demands, said Mohd Fadzli, especially in terms of salary.

“And if we get workers from Nepal or Bangladesh, we will need more time to train them, compared to Indonesian labourers who already have a basic knowledge of working in plantations,” he added.

In Perak, a 2,000ha oil palm plantation owner who wished to be known as Lim, said he only has 20% of the workforce needed for full operation.

“Three years ago, when I had about 200 workers, the harvesting cycle was about 12.5 days.
“During the initial MCO, I managed to persuade many of the workers to stay on, but not for the second year. Now, without the arrival of new workers in the past two years, I have only 32 workers remaining, many of them elderly,” he said.

“The harvest cycle will soon extend to 38 days if the situation does not improve.
“I’m supposed to harvest 33 tonnes per hectare per annum, but last year we only managed 18 tonnes,” Lim added.

He said his plantation is “not coping well” due to the labour shortage, which has affected everything from harvesting to maintenance work.

“Back then, pathways between trees were cleared with enough workers carrying out their respective tasks.

“Now, we have to sacrifice weeding work to enable the workforce to focus on harvesting and production tasks. This has resulted in the plantation getting overgrown with bushes causing workers to be unable to collect oil palm fruits which drop.

“The uncollected fruits start to rot and the seeds eventually grow into young trees around the mature ones, and we end up spending more time removing them.

“We have to incur all these added costs and the losses due to low harvest are a double whammy for plantation owners like me,” said Lim.He hopes that the labour shortage will be ironed out by the government before they incur more losses.

Related stories:
Plantations at a breaking point
Crude palm oil inventory rises 17.4% in April
Acute labour shortage causing Sarawak to lose billions
Heart and Soul: 100YO Malaysian planter is still working in oil palm plantation

 
The palm oil has been eating up alot of Pakistan forex reserves.

High time there is import substitution here.
 

Indonesia to lift ban on palm oil exports from May 23, trade reactions vary​

HIGHLIGHTS

Domestic supply of cooking oil reached 211,000 mt after ban
National price down to Rupiah 17,200/liter ($1.17) levels, says president
Supply concerns ease, but price predictions vary among trade sources


Indonesia, the world's largest palm oil producer and exporter, will lift a late April ban on the exports of palm oil products from May 23, President Joko Widodo said in a live broadcast, May 19.

"The national demand for cooking oil is 194,000 mt per month and in March before the export ban was imposed our supply was only 64,500 mt. But after the export ban, our supply reached 211,000 mt per month exceeding our monthly national needs," Widodo said.

The national average price of cooking oil also decreased from Rupiah 19,800/liter ($1.35/liter) to Rupiah 17,200/liter-17,600/liter, the President said, adding that the price of bulk cooking oil would fall over the next few weeks to the Rupiah 14,000/liter target they set as the supply is now abundant.

In January, Indonesia had instituted an obligation for palm oil suppliers to commit at least 20% of their production to ease domestic cooking oil prices and shortages. The quota was raised to 30% in early-March but the ruling was removed in favor of heavier export taxes at the end of the month.

Still failing to control runaway inflation, Jakarta stopped all palm oil exports since April 28. The quick shifts in policy left international buyers scrambling for alternative vegetable oil sources and pushed prices of other vegetable oils close to record highs.

While Indonesia typically consumes less than 40% of the 46 million-48 million mt of crude palm oil, or CPO, that it produces, domestic cooking oil prices have surged in the past year as local prices rose on the back of record surges in international vegetable oil markets through 2021.



Trade predictions​

While the announcement has ended one of the biggest uncertainties in the palm oil market, "we will have to wait for more details," Anil Kumar Bagani, head of research at Mumbai-based vegetable oil brokerage Sunvin Group said.

Since supply lines from Indonesia dried up from April 28, large buyers such as India and China, and EU have resorted to demand rationing due to high prices, trade sources told S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The strong production numbers which added to the tank-busting stocks will open the flood gates for aggressive exports from Indonesia. "Prices [in Malaysia] will face headwinds and unless we can compete, upside for local prices will be capped," said Lingam Supramaniam, director with vegetable oil brokerage Pelindung Bestari at Port Klang Malaysia.

Indonesia, along with smaller rival Malaysia controls 85% of the global palm oil trade.

"We expect gradual narrowing down of supply demand gap and prices to descend in coming days. The incremental surplus after the export ban would weigh on the market sentiment with anticipated production upcycle in coming months to keep Indonesia stocks significantly higher than last year same period," Aditya Jeripotula, research head at Hyderabad-based TransGraph Ltd said.

There will be only a short-term immediate correction in the market ranging from MR15-40/mt after the lifting of the ban and an anticipated big downfall is unlikely, Siddharth Jain, senior world oil analyst, Agri World told S&P Global, adding that the market prices will remain supported by numerous physical contract that have been secured and are being sold by Malaysia at higher prices negotiated during the ban.

 

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