Jakarta. Cameroon has quite a huge appetite for Indonesian palm oil technology, according to a senior diplomat, as Jakarta tries to spur its production using African weevils.

Agung Cahaya Sumirat, the Indonesian Ambassador to Cameroon, revealed on Tuesday evening that Yaoundé had grown curious about the country’s palm oil industry. Cameroon is Central Africa’s top palm oil grower, but the country has grown dependent on Indonesian imports to meet domestic demand. Indonesia commands over half of the global supply of the commodity that has become a miracle ingredient in almost everything, ranging from baked goods to shampoo.

Agung admitted to having had a palm oil talk with Cameroonian Research Minister Madeleine Tchuente.

"Cameroon wishes to learn our technologies. While palm oil is native to Africa, but they told us 'this is the reality' and insist on learning our ways. ... Several Indonesian companies — whose names I won’t reveal — have struck memoranda of understanding [MoUs] with the Cameroonian government on palm oil research," Agung told the press in Jakarta.

“Did you know that Indonesian companies from time to time would directly import [pollinating] weevils from West Africa?”

The envoy was alluding to the past bug imports from Tanzania. 

In April, Indonesia released around 7,000 of the insects at a state-run palm oil plantation in North Sumatra. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is planning to introduce as many as 1 million pollinators this year. Palm oil producers association Gapki expects the already tested bugs to drive yield up by 15% following years of sluggish production, although the hike also hinges on fertilizers and the weather, according to Bloomberg. 

Indonesia’s annual trade with Cameroon stood at $137.5 million as of end-August. Only $29.2 million had come from Indonesian exports; some 22% of those shipments were vegetable oils, the Trade Ministry reports showed. 

Palm oil now has to undergo a one-gate export system led by the sovereign fund Danantara as Indonesia seeks to clamp down on trade under-invoicing. Asked about the optics of the trade shake-up, Agung said he would keep the African businesses posted on the changes.

Indonesia’s overall palm oil exports neared $17.8 billion in the first 8 months of 2026, according to the statistics bureau BPS. The shipment volume was at the $16 billion mark.

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