INDONESIA will lower its mandatory domestic sales threshold for palm oil producers to 300,000 tonnes a month starting in May, from 450,000 tonnes currently, the Trade Ministry said on Thursday (Apr 27).

The world’s top palm oil producer tightened exports earlier this year in anticipation of higher domestic demand for cooking oil ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which started in late March this year.

Now, the exports allowance will be bigger, said senior Trade Ministry official, Isy Karim.

The government will tighten the ratio of palm oil exports to four times the volume producers have sold domestically from six times the volume, but ease the ratio for some cooking oil products, another official said.

Meanwhile, the government earlier this year also froze around 3 million tonnes worth of palm oil export permits. These permits will be allowed to be used in stages within the next nine months, senior trade official Budi Santoso added. REUTERS