Nature Alert: Indonesia Seeks New Markets for CPO Export

Monday 14 September 2009

Indonesia Seeks New Markets for CPO Export

Personal note:

This illustrates that rather than fix the problem, the government of Indonesia prefer tosell their palm oil to countries whose environmental record more closely resembles their own.

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Indonesia Seeks New Markets for CPO Export

2009-09-14 13:39:21 Xinhua Web Editor: Hu Weiwei

Indonesia is eyeing new markets for its crude palm oil (CPO) as its export to European market is likely to be halted in the next several years due to the region's new criteria related the commodity, the Kompas daily quoted an official as saying on Monday.

Secretary General of the Indonesian Palm Businessmen Association (GAPKI) Joko Supriyono said on Sunday that Indonesia has started to eye new markets like Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

"However, we can't abandon the EU's market because it is very potential for Indonesia's CPO," he said.

The association's data showed that Indonesia's CPO export in 2008 stood at 7,904.179 tons. Of the total, as much as 968,205 tons were exported to the EU from the Netherlands'ports.

Indonesia's other CPO export markets are India, China and Singapore. The European market is the second largest CPO export after India.

Rosediana Suharto, the head of Indonesian Palm Commission, said that to sell CPO to EU and to gain incentive, exporters should fulfill the region's directive criteria.

"If not, they will not get the incentive and no country in the region wants to buy the commodity," he said.

The directive criteria on the usage of renewable energy from renewable sources were approved by the European Parliament on April 23, 2009.

He said that one way to anticipate the export obstacle to the regions is by expanding export market to other countries like China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe.

http://english.cri.cn/6826/2009/09/14/1601s515544.htm

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.