Half of 5.1 Million Tons of National Palm Oil Consumption Must Be Packaged

 "The Ministry of Trade is continuously trying to improve the quality and safety of the food consumed, one of which is through the program of switching bulk cooking oil to packaged cooking oil," said Enggartiasto Lukita, in an official statement received by InfoSAWIT.

Enggar said the total national production of palm oil per year reached around 14 million tons. Out of that number, the allocation to meet domestic needs is around 5.1 million tons and the rest is for overseas market needs.

"Out of the domestic needs, almost 50 percent is still consumed in the form of bulk cooking oil that is not guaranteed its cleanliness, both from the production and distribution side," he explained.

The policy to make packaging palm oil cooking oil mandatory is a part of the government's strategic program, namely the program to increase the use of domestic products. This policy is to encourage people to consume packaged cooking oil because its quality and safety is more guaranteed.

This program has been conducted since 2014 through the issuance of the Packaged Cooking Oil policy which started to be enforced on 1 April 2017. However, the implementation of the policy was postponed because cooking oil producers were not ready yet to expand packaging units and boost the packaging industry in the regions.

"In line with the implementation of the Mandatory SNI Cooking Oil, the mandatory policy of packaging palm oil cooking oil will be enforced on 1 January 2020 without any transition period. For that reason, all business entities must sell cooking oil to consumers in a packaged condition and fulfill the applicable requirements," explained Enggartiasto.

Indonesia is recorded as one of the world's largest producers and exporters of crude palm oil (CPO). However, this needs to be followed by the provision of good quality cooking oil as a derivative product of CPO to fulfill domestic needs. "The fulfillment of this need is expected to be able to counter the negative campaign against Indonesia's CPO products and at the same time can raise the public's love for their own domestic products," the Minister of Trade continued.

The Minister of Trade hopes national cooking oil producers can prepare the things needed in the implementation of the mandatory cooking oil packaging policy. "We hope Indonesian consumers will use packaged cooking oil from domestic production that is more hygienic and healthy. Also, by using packaged cooking oil, it can raise the nation's status and dignity," he concluded.

The event was combined with a health walk event and a cooking oil sales bazaar by nine cooking oil producers for Rp 8,000/liter. In addition, there was also a bazaar of UMKM products fostered by the Ministry of Trade. (T2)

Source: Infosawit.com