PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The rapid expansion of palm oil plantations has resulted in a notable increase in crude palm oil (CPO) production in Indonesia, along with a corresponding rise in CPO export volumes. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the export volume of CPO and its derivatives has seen a growth of 12.3%, contributing to a 14.1% increase in the overall export value of CPO and its derivatives, on average.
This underscores the significant role of the palm oil sector in generating revenue on a national scale. Despite the transition of the export tax scheme to the Out Fee, this policy still remains in effect, serving as a means for the government to generate substantial funds, reaching trillions of rupiah.
While palm oil has proven to be a major contributor to the country’s economy, the investment in research and development does not align with its substantial impact. Research and development could serve as a crucial metric for industrial growth and the enhancement of additional value within the palm oil sector.
Also Read: Palm Oil Research Program to Develop Sustainable Palm Oil Industry
Unfortunately, Indonesia does not focus too much to get innovation in palm oil industries. This makes patent lists of palm oil innovation mastered by the countries which are not palm oil producers.
Based on the database PatentScope® World Intellectual Property Rights Organization (WIPO), there are 7.459 innovation to the palm oil industries if the word “palm oil” is searched in the patent description.
But many innovations are dominated by foreign countries, such as, the United States of America (USA) about 55%, Netherland about 7%, England about 6%, Swiss about 4% and Germany about 3%.
It gets worse to know that the patent applicants are mostly from palm oil innovation which are dominated by US industries, such asm Procter & Gamble (P&G) is 14,35%.
Meanwhile, Asean countries that got palm oil innovations are Malaysia and Singapore. Malaysia got 1,06% and Singapore got 0,04% of total palm oil innovation in the world. Indonesia got 0,04% innovation and Thailand got 0,05%.
Boost Palm Oil Researches
Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency (PFMA) proactively did supports through palm oil research and development program. It would be about to reinforce, develop, and empower palm oil industries in Indonesia in upstream to downstream sectors. This starts from encouraging the students’ will in Indonesia to research palm oil, create the basic to develop the industries in national scale to be stronger and more sustainable.
Director of PFMA, Eddy Abdurrachman said that research and development program in PFMA would involve some initiatives, such as, Program Grant Riset Sawit (GRS). It is divided into two ways, such as, selection and initiative.
“This program was designed to escalate research and development in sustainable and environmental palm oil. The main focus would cover, escalating productivity and efficiency, sustainability, creating new markets and products, and escalating smallholders’ welfare,” he said when delivering speech in the Pekan Riset Sawit Indonesia 2023 (PERISAI 2023) with the theme “Reinforcing Palm Oil Industry in Combating Global Challenges through Technological Innovation” in The Westin Surabaya, that Palmoilmagazine.com attended by the late of October 2023.
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He also mentioned since it started in 2015, Program Grant Riset Sawit (GRS) has funded 329 cooperation contracts with 88 research institutions in 19 provinces and involved 1202 researchers.
In the research result commercialization, PFMA is in cooperation with Asosiasi Inventor Indonesia (AII) to get technology readiness assessment from the result researches funded through GRS.
There have been 30 inventions from the research results are ready to get commercial. Some investors are interested in by making agreement of technology secret. Eddy said, through Palm Oil Research and Development Program, PFMA is committed to develop palm oil industries which are more sustainable, innovative and having highly competitiveness. (T2) (Source: Majalah InfoSAWIT, December 2012)
