PRESIDENT Director of Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) Dono Boestami said that government may accelerate the use of fuel with 30% biodiesel content (B30 biofuel) in order to whittle down the country\'s surplus of crude palm oil (CPO). "Furthermore, as Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (Ignasius Jonan) said, it is possible to accelerate up to 100%, but after passing tests," Dono said as quoted by Bisnis.com (15/7/2018). In his opinion, CPO consumption for biodiesel would be a crucial factor in supporting the industry players regarding tariff and export duties on several CPO product derivatives such as cooking oil. "The problem is not about (export) tariff, but we are also redressing the balance between CPO supply and demand.

In order to promote Sustainable Palm Oil Production & Trade, the Solvent Extractors\` Association of India (SEA) has inked an agreement with the Indonesian Palm Oil Board (DMSI) and Solidaridad Network Asia Limited (SNAL) at Jakarta in Indonesia recently. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on July 16 2018, during a visit of high level delegation from SEA to Jakarta recently. SEA president Atul Chaturvedi signed the MoU in the presence of the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution. It is expected that such a cooperation would lead to joint promotion of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) and the Indian Palm Oil Sustainability (IPOS) aligned sustainable palm oil in India, Indonesia and other markets through awareness creation amongst all stakeholders including consumers. The MoU recognises for the first time ISPO and the IPOS as legitimate sustainability framework for palm oil production and trade between both the countries. Nasution expressed hope on a cooperation between SEA-DMSI-SNAL, which will be able to strengthen the relationship and take forward the discussion on continued growth of palm oil and its derivatives. Commenting on the MoU signing, Chaturvedi said, \`The MoU would lead the way for long term sustainability of palm oil sector in the region by reducing barriers and facilitating enhanced production and trade of sustainable palm oil.\` (Business Line)

CHINESE companies has signed a purchase contract of 1,21 million tons of palm oil products from Indonesia with a total contract value of US$726 million. Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun expressed his appreciation for this trade agreement.

THE INDONESIAN government regulates the mechanism of determination of purchase price of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) to provide protection on reasonable price of FFB produced by smallholder farmers and to reduce unfair competition among palm oil mills. [googlepdf url=\`http://www.bpdp.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Permentan-No.1-Pedoman-Penetapan-Harga-TBS.pdf\` download=\`Download\` width=\`600\` height=\`800\`]

The Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) with BNI, BRI, and a number of oil palm farmers association in Jambi signed an agreement of financing facilities for Oil Palm Reforestation Program (PSR) at Swiss-Belhotel, Jambi on Friday (13/7/2018). Agreement was signed with some village cooperative system (Koperasi Unit Desa/KUD) Sarana Makmur and KUD Tani Makmur from Merangin Regency, KUD Sawit Kita from Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency, and KUD Tandan Buah Segar from Muaro Jambi Regency. These four KUD manage following plantations: KUD Sarana Makmur covering 222 hectares, KUD Tani Makmur area of 190 hectares, KUD Sawit Kita area of 171,78 hectares, and KUD Tandan Buah Segar covering 167,60 hectares of hectares. As of today, Jambi Province is also processing replanting financing scheme for some Gapoktan (a local name for farmers group).

INDONESIAN palm oil industry sees opportunities to increase palm oil export as China and the US have embarked upon a trade war.

In collaboration with the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS), researchers of Indonesian Oil Palm Research Institute (IOPRI) are conducting research to manufacture plywood from oil palm trunks adopting the technology of Sandwich Laminated Lumber.

President Joko Widodo has requested to accelerate use of B30 biodiesel fuels in order to reduce global economic pressure. The Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto stated the statement after attending a meeting discussed issues concerning currency exchange and national economic updates chaired by President Joko Widodo at the Bogor Presidential Palace, (9/7/2018). "The President wants that the use of 20% Biodiesel (B20) can be consistently implemented entirely and also requests to accelarate the use of 30% Biodiesel," Airlangga said. Ministry of Energi and Mineral Resources said that The President wants to speed up implementation of 30% biodiesel mandatory program (B30) since B30 is initially projected to be introduced by 2020. "Based on the regulation, B30 will be introduced by 2020.

President Director of the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS) Dono Boestami delivered a presentation on a comprehensive explanation about Indonesian palm oil outlook at the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) held by Indonesian Oil Palm Association (Gapki) and Thomson Reuters in Jakarta, Wednesday (11/07/2018).

An invention of helmet made of oil palm waste is developed by a group of researchers from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB).