PRESIDENT Joko \`Jokowi\` Widodo has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to support and promote Indonesian palm oil products, mainly to deal with discriminatory policies on palm oil products that are applied by the European Union. Jokowi said that the support is another attempt to improve and strengthen trade relationship between the countries.

INDONESIA has achieved positive result in its effort to develop sustainable palm oil, despite the stigma associated with the products by some European countries.

The Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) organized coordination meeting to discuss 2019 business plan as well as to evaluate 2018 business performance and 2019 palm oil industry outlook. The meeting, which was held in Bandung, 14 to 16 November 2018, focused on the theme "Palm oil outlook 2019 and how CPO Fund contribute to the SDGs." Attendees at the meeting included staffs and officials of BPDPKS who tried to draw up blueprint on how to achieve national palm oil industry target.

In trying to implement sustainable palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) will require companies to stop establishing new oil palm plantations on peatlands, starting from November 2018. RSPO Chief Executive Officer Darrel Webber delivered the statement at the 16th Annual Roundtable Conference on Sustainable Palm Oil and 15th Annual General Assembly in Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Wednesday (14/11/2018). "The conference will be framed around the key elements of the recent RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) review such as halting deforestation, protecting peatlands, and strengthening human and labour rights, as well as developing an additional and separate standard specifically for independent smallholders, due for ratification in November 2019," he said. According to RSPO Program Director Bilge Daldeniz, protecting peatlands was a point to include in the newest RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) 2018 which will be agreed on Thursday (15/11/2108).

BIOFUEL producers are expecting government to make it mandatory for biodiesel to have a bio-content of at least 30 percent by early next year as crude palm oil stocks are available and producers are ready.

USE of fuel with 20 percent biodiesel content (B2) in Indonesia is projected to reach 1.6 million tons by the end of this year.

CRUDE Palm Oil (CPO) is known to be the most widely-used vegetable oil in the world.

Government of Indonesia has issued Agriculture Minister Regulation 01/PERMENTAN/KB.120/1/2018 on directive of price setting mechanism for fresh fruit bunches (FFB) produced by palm oil smallholders. The regulation is official rule of price setting mechanism and partnership building between smallholders and palm oil companies. [googlepdf url=\`http://www.bpdp.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PERMENTAN-NO-1-THN-2018-TTG-TBS.pdf\` download=\`Download\` width=\`600\` height=\`800\`]