DSI urged to oversee digital palm oil trading platform
Indonesian Palm Growers’ Association (POPSI) has urged the government to ensure PT Danantara Sumber Daya Indonesia (DSI) does not act as the sole controller of the national palm oil trade. Instead, DSI should function as a verifier, supporting regulator, and overseer of the national palm oil trading system.
This would be achieved through developing an integrated digital trading platform from upstream to downstream and export. The proposal was made by POPSI Chairman Mansuetus Darto during a media briefing titled “DSI Suppressing Palm Oil Farmers’ Prosperity”, which highlighted potential impacts of DSI’s scheme and the single-window export mechanism.
“The price of fresh fruit bunches (TBS) for farmers is reduced by lengthy supply chains, then further burdened by export duties and levies that directly affect farmers. Now DSI has emerged, potentially extending the trading supply chain and increasing pressure on TBS prices,” Mansuetus stated in a press statement in Jakarta on Thursday, 28 May 2026.
He added that international market uncertainties due to unclear natural resource export governance mechanisms could further pressure TBS prices. Mansuetus noted that the new trading scheme could lead to more local traders capable of buying crude palm oil (CPO) from independent mills at lower prices.
He hopes for regulatory certainty from the government, particularly to ensure trading schemes and transaction processes are stable until December 2026. Additionally, DSI must outline a work plan for palm oil trade in the market. With clear regulations, the industry ecosystem remains stable and transactions with palm oil farmers continue normally.
He continued that in the context of national palm oil trade governance, POPSI supports modernising the trading system through transparent and integrated digitalisation. However, digitalisation must not become a centralisation of trade or create new monopolies that increase market dependency and undermine healthy competition mechanisms.