PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Palm oil exports are undeniably crucial for maintaining Indonesia’s trade balance. From 2021 to 2023, palm oil exports saw significant growth, largely due to rising prices for crude palm oil (CPO). In 2022, exports soared to an impressive US$39.07 billion, including downstream products. However, in 2023, prices fell, leading to a decrease in exports to US$30.32 billion.
Conversely, CPO production in Indonesia has remained stagnant over the past four years. Domestic palm oil consumption has increased, driven mainly by the expansion of the mandatory biodiesel policy. According to data from the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA), palm oil export volume represented 77% of total production in 2018, but this figure declined to approximately 66% from 2020 to 2022.
In addition to the declining export ratio, palm oil plantation productivity has also decreased due to aging plantations. Stakeholders within the IPOA are actively seeking solutions to reverse this trend, one of which is introducing new pollinator bees, Elaeidobius kamerunicus Faust, to improve productivity.
Also Read: Palm Oil Industries in Indonesia: Balancing Economic Contributions and Environmental Concerns
The small bee would be from Africa. It is believed to increase palm oil plantation productivity in Indonesia. Since in the Colonialism era, the stakeholders and smallholders depended on one kind of pollinator bee. Unfortunately, as times goes by, the pollinator bee’s performance got decreasing namely in rainy season. As the result, the pollination did not maximally happen. Palm oil production gets decreased.
The new Elaeidobius is believed not to get influenced by the bad climate. Even when the rain is hard, this kind of bee would pollinate always to confirm that every palm oil flower would be pollinated perfectly, would open the way to increase the harvest results.
Nevertheless, bring the new species into Indonesia would be hard. It needs collaboration among every stakeholder to confirm that the new pollinator bee would successfully be introduced into the plantations.
The question remains, would it directly happen? Of course, the process would not be as simple as we think about. But there would be big hopes for the smallholders and stakeholders that the new species would deliver good news for palm oil industries. To know about this topic, dear readers should read in Focus in Majalah InfoSAWIT, September 2024. (P2)
