According to a rule issued by the Trade Ministry on Thursday, Indonesia has launched an export acceleration program aimed at shipping at least 1 million tonnes of crude palm oil and some derivatives.

The regulation was signed on June 7 and went into effect immediately. The programme is valid until July 31. The regulation, signed on June 7, says if a larger shipment quota is needed, the quota could exceed the 1 million limits.
Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, allowed exports to resume from May 23 after imposing a three-week ban to bolster local supplies of the edible oil and curbing runaway prices.

However, the restart of shipments has been slow as exporters face new requirements to secure domestic supplies. The bottlenecks have annoyed farmers, who have struggled to sell palm fruit as many of the water tanks in the factory are full.

Before the ban, Indonesia’s palm oil exports averaged 2.5 million to 3 million tonnes per month, at a time when global vegetable oil supplies are uncertain. The government has also lowered the top export tax and levy on crude palm oil from $575 per tonne to $488 per tonne to encourage exports.

Companies participating in the export acceleration program are required to provide information about their stockpiles in storage and other data to the Ministry of Trade’s online platform. After the export ban was lifted, the government introduced domestic sales requirements, stipulating that palm oil exporters can only receive export quotas if some of their products are sold locally.