Selasa 14 Feb 2012 18:34 WIB

Indonesia to reply US EPA’s notification on CPO

Rep: Esthi Maharani/Satya Festiani/ Red: Yeyen Rostiyani

Foto: Antara/Yudhi Mahatma

A Palm plantation in Central Kalimantan (illustration).

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID,

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government is ready to reply the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)`s notification on its crude palm oil exports to the US, a minister said. “We are still seeking to provide formulas of reply to the Indonesian embassy in the US,” the Minister of Agriculture, Suswono, said on Monday.

He was responding to the US allegation that Indonesian CPO had not met standards to produce renewable energy and thus, the Indonesian government and other stakeholders are given until March 28 to prove the allegation scientifically.

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture Rusman Heriawan said the government had prepared its explanation on CPO to the US government. He said, the CPO products or its derivatives used for biodiesel basic material and diesel fuel are better.

The CPO export to US is actually not big. However, the government worries the ban would broadly impact the CPO industry in Indonesia for US stance could affect other importers.

Concentrating in giving the explanation, Indonesian government postpones its plan to denounce US policy to WTO. “We try to solve it bilaterally. If it does not work, we denounce it to WTO,” he explained.

Yet, the Agriculture Counselor in US Ambassador, Dennis Voboril, refuted the issue of US ban on Indonesia CPO. He visited the Ministry of Agriculture to explain the US position. According to Voboril, the study on Indonesian CPO is undergoing. The statement issued on 27th January is the first of three stages before implementing the policy, such as the ban on importing CPO to US.

At a discussion with the Agriculture Journalists Forum (Forwatan) late last month, Voboril, said the US had issued a draft environmental protection energy (EPA) which controls greenhouse gas emissions originating from bio-fuels. Under the draft EPA, the threshold for greenhouse gas emissions is a minimum of 20 percent.

According to the EPA analysis, biodiesel and renewable diesel derived from the Indonesian CPO respectively fall 17 percent and 11 percent short of the standards. “The first phase has been decided late last January. So we should like to affirm that Indonesia`s CPO exports to the US are not embargoed,” he said then.

According to Voboril, the US CPO imports from Indonesia rose 2.5 times compared to 2010. Many US households also used CPO products for cooking, he said adding CPO was also used for other industries in the US.