Ministry of Trade: CPO Reference Price Rises Driven by Demand from India and China

The Indonesian Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has attributed the strengthening of the reference price (HR) for crude palm oil (CPO) to increased demand from India and China, the country’s major importers.

The Ministry’s Directorate General for Foreign Trade, Tommy Andana, announced that the CPO reference price for determining export duties and export levies for 1-31 March 2026 has been set at $938.87 per metric tonne (MT). This represents a 2.22 per cent increase of $20.40 per MT compared to the previous period of 1-28 February 2026, which was valued at $918.47 per MT.

“The strengthening of the CPO reference price is driven by increased demand, particularly from major importing countries such as India and China, which is not offset by increases in supply. The limited supply is due to declining production and rising prices of other vegetable oils, namely soybean oil,” said Tommy in a statement issued in Jakarta on Saturday.

Tommy explained that the CPO reference price was calculated from the average price during the 20 January-19 February 2026 period at the Indonesian CPO Exchange of $882.76 per MT, the Malaysian CPO Exchange of $994.97 per MT, and the Rotterdam CPO Port Price of $1,252.36 per MT.

According to the Ministry of Trade Regulation (Permendag) Number 35 of 2025, when the difference in the average of the three price sources exceeds $40, the CPO reference price uses the average of the two price sources that form the median and are closest to the median.

“Therefore, the reference price is derived from the Malaysian CPO Exchange and the Indonesian CPO Exchange. Based on these calculations, the CPO reference price was set at $938.87 per MT,” said Tommy.

Furthermore, cooking oil (Refined, Bleached, and Deodorised/RBD palm olein) in branded packaging with a net weight of ≤25 kg is subject to an export duty of $31 per MT.