POPSI: DSI should serve as integrated palm oil trade verifier

The Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers’ Organisation Association (POPSI) believes Danantara Sumber Daya Indonesia (DSI) should serve as the supervisor of the national palm oil trade system by developing an integrated digital trading platform from upstream to downstream and exports. POPSI Chairman Mansuetus Darto stated in Jakarta on Friday that DSI should also act as a verifier and supporting regulator for the national palm oil trade system. “POPSI believes the state, government, and/or DSI should serve as regulators, verifiers, and supervisors of national palm oil trade,” Mansuetus said. In the context of national palm oil trade governance, POPSI supports modernising the trading system through transparent and integrated digitisation. However, he cautioned that digitisation must not lead to trade centralisation or create new monopolies that increase market dependency and undermine healthy competition. “Therefore, POPSI proposes building a robust, comprehensive, and integrated national palm oil digital platform from upstream to downstream and exports,” Mansuetus said. The platform must integrate data on farmer production, palm oil mills (PKS), refineries, CPO stock, domestic and export transactions, licensing documents, payment flows, and real-time tracking of shipments and export foreign exchange earnings. The system must also connect directly with Customs, the Palm Oil Fund Management Agency (BPDP), port authorities, surveyors, quarantine services, relevant ministries, the national logistics system, and the banking sector. With this integrated digital oversight model, the state can maintain trade transparency, monitor government revenue, control under-invoicing and transfer pricing practices, and accurately track exports without extending trade bureaucracy or disrupting existing market mechanisms. Furthermore, POPSI expects the government to provide regulatory certainty, particularly to ensure trade schemes and transaction flows until December 2026. “Additionally, DSI must develop a work plan for palm oil trade in the market. With regulatory certainty, the industry ecosystem remains stable and transactions with palm oil farmers proceed normally,” he said.