Palm oil fruits in Tamiang, Indonesia
Photo: Hotli Simanjuntak/ dpa
If the prices for cooking oil rise even more sharply in the coming weeks than they have so far, this could also be due to Indonesia.
Reason: Due to an export stop for palm oil, which the island state, as the world's largest producer, issued in order to combat shortages in its own country and to ensure the supply of its population, various stock exchange prices for edible oils headed for highs on Monday.
In view of the low stocks, the price of cooking oil in Indonesia had already risen sharply in recent months.
This had triggered protests that threatened to destabilize the state of around 270 million people.
Palm oil is mainly used in Asia for frying and frying.
However, it is also found in numerous foods, for example in margarine, chocolate, spreads containing cocoa, ice cream, baked goods, pizzas and other convenience products.
Detergents, soaps, cosmetics, candles and lubricants also have a high palm oil content.
The decision by Southeast Asian Indonesia not only affects the availability of palm oil alone, said commodity expert James Fry from the consulting firm LMC International.
There are currently numerous bottlenecks in the supply of soybean, rapeseed and sunflower oil.
The war in Ukraine, among other things, drove up the price of cooking oil by around 50 percent in the past six months.
A development that the export ban could further fuel.
Export ban from Thursday
Palm oil is by far the most widely used vegetable fat in the world, and Indonesia is its top exporter.
Malaysia, as number two, cannot compensate for these losses, said Atul Chaturvedi, head of the Indian trade association SEA.
So far, Indonesia has supplied half of the palm oil required by the world's largest consumer of vegetable oil, India, while the quota for Pakistan and Bangladesh was just under 80 percent.
That is now over for the time being: the export ban should come into force next Thursday, announced President Joko Widodo at the end of last week.
Only when the market in the country has stabilized and cooking oil is available again at affordable prices will he reassess the decision.
rai/dpa
