Jakarta. Indonesia has only achieved half of what it had initially targeted for the so-called domestic market obligation or DMO for cooking oil in April, according to the Trade Ministry.

The DMO policy requires crude palm oil (CPO) producers to allocate a portion of their products to the domestic market before exporting. The government has set a goal to distribute 450,000 cooking oil per month under this DMO scheme. But despite April-end being just around the corner, the DMO distribution for cooking oil is still far from the target.

“As of yesterday [April 26], we have had 217,625 tons of cooking oil under the DMO scheme. So we have achieved about 55 percent of the target this month,” senior Trade Ministry official Isy Karim told a press briefing in Jakarta on Thursday.

“Over the past few days, there wasn’t any DMO cooking oil distribution because the producers and businesses had day-offs due to the Eid break,” Isy said.

According to Isy, Minyakita, an affordable cooking oil sold in simple packaging, represented 55 percent of the distributed 217,625 tons. The remaining was bulk cooking oil. Previous media reports showed that Indonesia distributed about 320,783 tons, but Minyakita only accounted for 38.28 percent.

“So Minyakita’s portion has jumped significantly,” Isy said.

The government also announced plans that they would lower the DMO target for cooking oil from 450,000 tons to 300,000 tons per month, starting next month.

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