The Agricultural Quarantine Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture (Barantan Kementan) released exports of 10 thousand tons of palm oil cake from West Sumatra to New Zealand with a total value of Rp 12.24 billion. Oil palm cake is one of the five commodities with the largest export volume and a contributor to foreign exchange for the non-oil and gas sector in West Sumatra.
Head of Barantan of the Ministry of Agriculture Ali Jamil during the release of exports in the Teluk Bayur Port area, West Sumatra, Wednesday (6/3), said that in 2018, palm oil cake exports reached Rp. 301 billion.
The export destination countries for palm oil cake are New Zealand, Vietnam, Italy, Philippines, South Africa, Singapore, Netherlands, China, United States of America, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.
"We have confirmed that this 10 thousand tons of palm kernel cake passes the quarantine inspection process and gets a phytosanitary certificate as a requirement for export destination countries," said Ali Jamil, yesterday.
In early 2019, the Padang Agricultural Quarantine issued a health certificate or phytosanitary certificate (PC) for 23 types of commodities with a total of IDR 356.67 billion, with details in January the export value of IDR 200.47 billion and February with a value of IDR 156.20 billion.
Head of Padang Agricultural Quarantine Joni Anwar said, along with the export of palm oil cake, six other commodities were also exported with a total value of Rp 59.387 billion. These commodities are 32 thousand tons of palm shells (PKS) to South Korea, 83 tons of coconut milk to the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Costa Rica, 129.30 tons of cinnamon to Portugal, Malaysia, Algeria and the United States, 19.80 tons of coffee to Thailand, 7.88 tons of cloves and cardamom to Malaysia, and 201.60 tons of rubber to China. Padang Agricultural Quarantine carries out an export acceleration program by holding the 2019 Agro Gemilang program. The program is in the form of technical guidance to accelerate quarantine services, both for animal and plant products, to the millennial generation and exporters.
The service can be carried out at the port, in the owner's warehouse, or in the container house. The program is expected to encourage the creation of fast services, increased exports, and prosperous people.
Meanwhile, as reported by Antara, the government is preparing a new Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) related to the tariff rate for palm oil exports. "What we are looking for is a mechanism that is more representative of the actual price," said the Director General of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) Oke Nurwan.
Okay, conveying that the PMK mechanism for these levies will be different from before. The PMK will regulate the price limit for palm oil that will be subject to export levies. In the previous regulation, namely PMK 152 of 2018, palm oil export levies were based on a reference price of US$ 570 per tonne.
"The PMK for levies will be different," said Oke. Regarding the reference price for palm oil, it will be further regulated in the PMK to be issued.
