RI to export 2.3m tons of palm oil this year

RI to export 2.3m tons of palm oil this year

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Indonesia is expected to export up to 2.3
million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) in 1998, Derom Bangun, vice
chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association, said
yesterday.

"Exports can be up to 2.3 million tons after the export ban is
lifted, or to be more cautious, at least two million tons, for
this year," Bangun told Reuters at the annual Asia Edible Oil
Markets in Singapore.

"The exports will bring US$1.2 billion," he said.

Owing to an El Nino-triggered drought and forest fires last
year in Indonesia, the nation's CPO output forecast for 1998 has
been lowered to 5.9 million tons from an earlier 6.3 million, he
said.

The output is expected to rise to 6.6 million tons in 1999 and
10 million in the year 2004, Bangun said in a speech at the
conference earlier.

"We should be able to export five million tons when the output
reaches 10 million," Bangun said when asked about the growth in
exports.

Indonesia in December banned exports of CPO and its by-
products between January and March in a bid to boost supplies and
reduce the domestic prices of cooking oil, which have soared
because of the tumbling rupiah currency.

Officials have said the three-month-old ban on exports of palm
oil would stay in place indefinitely.

Palm oil production, traditionally low in January and
February, has started to pick up in March and there should be
sufficient supplies for the domestic market by April, Bangun
said.

"The government will lift the ban when the output can meet
domestic requirements. This is the best way to guess when the ban
will be lifted," he said.

In London, crude palm oil cif Europe gained a further $12.50 a
ton at the opening of the European vegetable oil market on
Thursday, but buyers were around $15 below the asking prices.

Uncertainties over if or when Indonesia will lift its ban on
the export of crude palm oil and its by products underpinned the
market with the latest reports coming out of Indonesia confusing
the situation.