JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) — Indonesia says its exports of used cooking oil and palm oil residue in recent years had exceeded production capacity, indicating crude palm oil had been mixed in and prompting it to issue regulations curbing shipments last week.
The world’s biggest exporter of palm oil issued a ministerial decree clamping down on shipments of used cooking oil and palm oil residue, aimed to avert a potential shortfall of crude palm oil (CPO) for domestic industries.
Trade ministry data showed exports of palm oil mill effluent (POME) and high acid palm oil residue (HAPOR) in 2023 and January-October 2024 far exceeded the Indonesian government’s estimate of total capacity of around 300,000 tonnes.
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POME and HAPOR are palm oil residue products that can be used to make biofuel or fertilizer.
Shipments of both products reached 3.45 million tonnes in January-October 2024 and 4.87 million tonnes in 2023. That compares with CPO exports of 2.7 million tonnes in the first 10 months of 2024 and 3.6 million tonnes in 2023.
The ministry also said there was a 21 per cent increase in exports of POME and HAPOR between 2019 and 2023, compared with a 20 per cent drop in CPO exports in the same period.
“This justifies (the view) that the exported POME and HAPOR were not purely from residue or used CPO processing, but were also a mixture of virgin CPO,” trade minister Budi Santoso said.
Budi said availability of CPO for domestic use could be at risk without regulations to curb exports.
Authorities have previously alleged that some cooking oil sold under a government program called Minyakita had been mislabelled as used cooking oil and shipped overseas for biodiesel feedstock.
Separately, in June 2024, a group of U.S. senators alleged fraudulent used cooking oil had been shipped from China to the United States, including some cargoes that might include virgin palm oil.
