GAPKI reports that Indonesian palm oil exports in August were up 15% year-on-year.

GAPKI, Indonesia's largest palm oil industry association, said Tuesday that the country's palm oils stock will remain around 2.5 million metric tonnes at end-2024. This is after production was affected last year by dry weather.

GAPKI data show that palm oil exports from the world's biggest producer rose by 15% in August compared to a year ago, to 2,38 million metric tonnes. This lowered its end-August stock of palm oil to 2,45 million tons down from 2.51 millions tons a month before.

GAPKI data shows that this was the lowest stockpile of Indonesian rice since March 2019.

GAPKI Secretary General M. Hadi Sugeng Wahyudiono said to reporters that the stockpile will remain at this level, as palm oil production is expected to be affected by a drought-like weather pattern in 2023.

The output in August was slightly higher than a year ago, but the overall production since the beginning of the year has been down by 5%.

"Until the end the year most likely (the output) will stay 5% lower... Hadi stated that this year's total production and output of crude palm oils is estimated to be 51 million tonnes.

Palm oil consumption in the United States is driven by biodiesel blends.

On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman reaffirmed that the new government is committed to implementing a 40% mandatory mix of palm-oil based fuel in Diesel, also known as B40. This will begin in January.

Indonesia has set a mandatory biodiesel mix of 35%.

GAPKI Chairman Eddy Martono stated that increasing the palm oil mix to 40% would increase domestic consumption by 2,000,000 tons. (Reporting and writing by Bernadette Cristina Munthe; Fransiska Nanangoy; Editing by John Mair, Jason Neely;

(source: Reuters)