Indonesia may tighten POME oil export rules: Ministry

Indonesian exports of palm oil wastes and residues including palm oil mill effluent (Pome) oil may soon be subjected to stricter export regulations, according to a draft document from its trade ministry.

The ministry released the draft after a meeting with biofuel feedstock exporters on 20 August. The timeline for a decision on finalising the regulation is still unclear, although some market participants said it could be made by this month.

Exports of Pome oil, high acid palm oil residue (Hapor) and empty fruit bunches (EFB) oil under the HS code 2306.60.90 are expected to require export permits, a change from the previous requirement of only export rights. While more details were not disclosed, meeting domestic market obligations (DMO) is usually a prerequisite to get export permits, suppliers said. This means that companies will need to sell a certain amount of cooking oil within Indonesia — or buy export quotas or credits from palm oil refineries around $15-$20/t — before they are able to export these products. This has led to expectations of potentially tightened feedstock exports.

Refineries who sell cooking oil volumes to remote areas of Indonesia will also receive higher export quotas. As of January 2023, only crude palm oil (CPO), refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil, RBD palm olein and used cooking oil (UCO) were subject to the DMO requirements.

The previously-set domestic Highest Retail Price (Harga Eceran Tertinggi or HET) for cooking oil sold to consumers at 14,000 rupiah/l is now Rp15,700/l. This is likely because of higher CPO prices and packaging costs, a Indonesia-based supplier said. But market participants said they were also anticipating this increase previously.

The higher HET implies that companies' cost of acquiring export permits in the medium to long term could fall, having sold cooking oil at higher prices domestically, market participants said.

DMO for cooking oil

Indonesia's Ministry of Trade also issued a regulation on 16 August stating that the DMO scheme for cooking oil will move fully from bulk to packaged palm olein – in 500ml, 1 litre (l), 2l and 5l volumes. This is likely to help maintain stable cooking oil prices and control inflation, as packaged olein is easier to monitor than bulk, a supplier said. The deadline for moving from bulk to packaged volumes is 12 November.

Refineries under the DMO must also supply cooking oil volumes domestically of around 250,000 t/month, compared with approximately 300,000 t/month previously. But actual volumes will also depend on factors like how much palm oil wastes and residues exporters want to ship in a particular month too, a supplier said.

The draft document did not include updates to long-awaited changes to export duties and levies to POME oil, UCO and other products, market participants said. They were expecting these changes in September or October when the new government is sworn in, although the actual timeline is difficult to determine. Current combined export duties and levies on POME for August is only $10/t, considering a CPO reference price of $820.11/t. UCO is not subject to duties, but have levies of $35/t.

By Sarah Giam