Jakarta. Indonesia attracted Rp 62.8 trillion ($3.7 billion) worth of investments in the palm oil sector last year, with all the money meant to enable the country create higher-value products from this agricultural commodity.

Over the past years, the resource-rich Indonesia has been wanting to climb up the value chain. To this end, the country has been opening its doors for investors who wish to set up factories that can process its natural resources, such as palm oil, into more sophisticated goods. Investment Minister Rosan Roeslani revealed that investors had put tens of trillions of rupiahs into the Indonesian palm oil downstream industry throughout 2025. 

“This downstream policy is about capturing more value out of our commodities at home because it has a multiplier economic impact and can create jobs,” Rosan told a press briefing in Jakarta on Thursday.

“Not only does it boost the economy, but having all the manufacturing in Indonesia allows us to improve our [human] capital by introducing them to new technologies. … And we will continue to encourage this in the palm oil industry,” Rosan said.

The minister did not go into details on whether it was mainly domestic or foreign investors who had been backingthe industrial value creation push in the palm oil industry. However, data showed that Indonesia amassed around Rp 6.6 trillion worth of investments in “other forestry sectors”, which included nutmegs, pine, coconut, cacao, and biofuel.

The downstream push is not only limited to the forestry sector, but also focuses on mining, fisheries, as well as oil and gas. Investors to this day remain largely concentrated on the minerals. As a case in point, Indonesia amassed Rp 185.2 trillion (nearly $11 billion) worth of investments in nickel industrial processing throughout 2025 — almost triple what the palm oil industry got. Indonesia has stopped exporting unprocessed nickel ores since 2020. 

Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil supplier, and is taking advantage of this abundant agricultural commodity to slash fuel imports. The country has what it calls the B40 policy, which mandates a 40% palm oil blend in its biofuel. 

Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia has said that the government would raise the mandatory blend to 50% in the second half of this year — a move better known as the B50 — if the tests are a success. Senior minister Airlangga Hartarto recently revealed that the timeline of the B50 policy would still be subject to “continuous reviews”, citing the price dynamics in fuel oil and palm oil.

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