Jakarta. Indonesia has attracted at least Rp 44.4 trillion, or roughly $2.5 billion, worth of investments this year to bankroll the country’s attempt to move up the palm oil value chain, according to the latest data published by the government.

Indonesia has had enough of exporting raw commodities, including crude palm oil. While this coveted vegetable oil continues to drive the country’s exports, Indonesia is seeing dollar signs in processed products, a plan that has caught investors’ interest.

In the third quarter alone, palm oil investments totaled Rp 14.9 trillion ($829 million). The full-year investments reached Rp 44.4 trillion as of end-September 2026, making it the largest investor magnet in the agriculture and forestry downstream group.  

“When it comes to downstream industries, we will push for quality investments that can create jobs,” Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani told the press in Jakarta on Monday, while saying that the agricultural sector is among the labor-intensive ones.

Last year, investors put around Rp 62.8 trillion ($3.5 billion) in Indonesia's palm oil downstream sector. The government did not say where these palm oil investors were coming from, although China and India have traditionally been its largest foreign buyers. Palm oil is an ingredient in almost everything from biscuits to shampoos, hence the huge appetite.

Indonesia to this day, however, has not gone as far as to impose a ban on crude palm oil in favor of only selling its derivatives, as to what had happened with nickel.

Since 2020, Indonesia has stopped exporting unprocessed nickel ores to spur domestic value-added processing. The move also made nickel the most sought-after downstream industry among investors, garnering about Rp 118.9 trillion ($6.6 billion) in investment in the nine months of 2026.

Palm oil —  be it crude or processed —  has largely kept Indonesia out of the red. Between January and August, palm oil shipments neared $17.8 billion and weighed a total of 16.1 million tons. They made up almost 9.6% of Indonesia’s non-oil and gas exports over the said period.

At home, more and more palm oil is going into biodiesel production. Starting in July, all biodiesel sold at Indonesian pumps has a 50% palm oil blend. The Iran war — and the subsequent energy price hikes — have been a wake-up call for Jakarta to slash fuel imports.

Indonesia and the neighboring Malaysia make up around 85% of the global palm oil supply.

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