Trade Minister Reveals Reasons for Plan to Increase MinyaKita Cooking Oil Price

Trade Minister Budi Santoso has emphasised that the government’s plan to increase the maximum retail price (HET) of subsidised MinyaKita cooking oil is not related to limited CPO supplies due to absorption for the B50 biodiesel programme. According to Budi, the planned increase is triggered by the soaring CPO prices, which impact rising production costs.

“This is because the CPO price factor is rising, making production costs higher. So we must adjust. Moreover, the MinyaKita HET has been unchanged for three years,” Budi said when met at the Ministry of Trade complex in Jakarta on Sunday, 3 May 2026.

He has not yet specified the amount of the HET increase for the subsidised oil. “It is still being discussed,” he said.

The price of crude palm oil (CPO), the raw material for cooking oil, continues to climb due to conflicts in the Middle East. This increase is driven by high demand for CPO as an alternative energy source amid elevated crude oil prices.

Indonesia Palm Oil Strategic Studies projects that in the second quarter of 2026, global CPO prices will rise from US$1,165 per tonne in April to US$1,440 per tonne, continuing to US$1,701 per tonne in May and reaching US$1,783 per tonne in June 2026.

Currently, the MinyaKita HET stands at Rp15,700 per litre. This price is regulated under Ministry of Trade Regulation Number 43 of 2025.

The government’s plan to raise the MinyaKita HET first emerged during a limited coordination meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Food on Wednesday, 22 April 2026.

Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan stated at the time that the HET increase plan must involve the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency and related institutions. “We will calculate it together, and then it will be determined in a special meeting,” said the Chairman General of the National Mandate Party.