Bitter Lesson: Palm Oil Smallholder Prices Once Collapsed to Rp500

The Chairman of the Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS), Sabarudin, has stated that the current fluctuations in fresh fruit bunch (TBS) prices are reminiscent of events four years ago. When the government halted CPO exports in 2022 to address a cooking oil shortage, palm oil prices at the farm level collapsed within hours, in some regions touching as low as Rp500 per kilogram.

“Indeed, the TBS price, as said by the Minister of Agriculture (Amran Sulaiman), is set at the provincial level through a ministerial regulation and then enacted via a gubernatorial regulation. That gubernatorial regulation sets the price, but actually, from the start, many companies have not complied with the set price,” Sabarudin said when met at the Ministry of Agriculture office in Jakarta on Monday (8/6/2026).