House of Representatives ready to summon Agriculture Minister over IPOP

"We have scheduled to summon the Minister of Agriculture. Tomorrow on Thursday (14/4) we will hold a hearing meeting (DPR) with the Minister of Agriculture. We will ask the Minister for an explanation," said Vice Chairman of House of Representatives Commission IV Herman Khaeron in Jakarta, on Tuesday.

According to Herman, if the implementation of IPOP causes many problems in the field, then the government should prohibit it and the Ministry of Agriculture should take firm action.

"We will back up that. Our concern is the farmers who are greater in number," he said.

According to him, the environmental standards implemented by the IPOP are too high for farmers to follow.

If the farmers cannot follow the standardization created by the IPOP, then it is certain that the price of farmer's fresh fruit bunch (TBS) will be hard to sell because almost all the national palm oil trading is controlled by companies that have signed the commitment.

"This condition will be very dangerous for the farmers. The government and palm oil business operators in Indonesia should just base themselves on the standardization that is owned by the Indonesian government, namely Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO)," he said.

Moreover, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) stated that the IPOP has the potential to become a means of cartel.

"If that is true. This is very dangerous. The government must firmly prohibit the implementation of the IPOP in Indonesia," he said.