JAKARTA, Reuters – Indonesia will resume palm oil exports on Monday following a ban lasting more than three weeks. However, industry traders and businesses waited for details about the rules that would allow them to ensure domestic supply of edible oil in order to manage cooking oil prices.

In an effort to reduce the soaring prices for cooking oil in the country of Southeast Asia, which is the largest palm oil producer in the world, this Southeast Asian nation has stopped exports from April 28. This was in response to shortages in sunflower oil supplies due to war in Ukraine.

Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia, announced that the ban on the export of crude palm oil was lifted last week. He expressed confidence that the bulk cooking oil price would reach $14,000 (or $0.9546) per barrel, even though they are currently higher in certain areas.

The world’s third largest vegetable oil market is made up of palm oil. About 60% of that supply comes from Indonesia.

Indonesia announced that it would impose the Domestic Market Obligation policy (DMO), which requires producers to sell certain percentages of its products in Indonesia for supply security.

According to Chief Economics Minister Airlangga Hartarto, Indonesia will retain 10,000,000 tonnes of its cooking oil stocks at home, according to the DMO rules. Hartarto also stated that the Trade Ministry would regulate their implementation.

On Monday, traders waited for information about the DMO or other rules.

Sellers first try to get rid of any pending quantities that were stuck due to the ban. A dealer based in Mumbai who works for a major trading house said that they are also accepting orders, although demand is low.

The trader added that they are not too keen to sell many before fully understanding DMO rules.

Due to the uncertainty in Indonesia’s policies, the palm oil futures for Malaysian competitors rose by 1.67% on Monday.

Carolyn Lim, the spokesperson for Palm Oil Producer Musim Mas was asked whether exports had been resumed by the company. She stated that they were still focused on “flooding local markets with cooking oil in order to hopefully reach target retail prices”, noting that the Indonesian government is still worried about high retail prices.

Trade Ministry data revealed that the average price per litre for bulk cooking oils was 17,000 rupees as of Friday.

Others cheered, however, the lifting of the export ban.

Farmers protested the 70% fall in palm fruit prices last week as palm oil stocks were full.

Irfan, a palm oil farmer said that there are now no longer long lines at the palm oil mills. He said palm fruit prices had stabilized in West Sulawesi.

($1 = 14,666.0000 rupiah)