Bernadette Christina and Fransiska Nanangoy

JAKARTA, Reuters – Indonesia’s palm oil export ban will be lifted starting Monday after improvements in domestic cooking oil supplies, President Joko Widodo announced on Thursday.

Since April 28, the largest exporter of palm oil in the world has stopped shipments of crude palm oils (CPO) as well as some derivative products, to reduce domestic oil prices.

The president stated in a video that the decision was made despite bulk cooking oils not reaching the 14,000 rupees per litre target price. He said the move is in line with the government’s concern for the welfare of the 17 million palm oil workers.

Jokowi as the President is commonly known said that the level of supply for bulk cooking oils has now exceeded the needs of the domestic market.

He said that the “average price for (bulk), cooking oil in April was 19,800 rupees per litre, and the average price fell to between 17,200 and 17,600 rupees per litre after the ban.”

As a way to control domestic prices Indonesia imposed a ban on the export of vegetable oil. But pressures are mounting as farmers complain that they don’t have enough demand.

Global vegetable oil markets are now in turmoil after the ban was placed on sunflower oil supplies that had been largely destroyed by war in Ukraine.

The world’s largest vegetable oil market includes palm oil. About 60% of global palm oil production is in Indonesia.