Hundreds of Indonesian smallholder farmers yesterday staged a protest in the capital, Jakarta, and in other parts of the world’s fourth-most populous nation, demanding that the government end a palm oil export ban that has slashed their income.
Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil exporter, has since April 28 halted shipments of crude palm oil and some of its derivative products in a bid to control soaring prices of domestic cooking oil, rattling global vegetable oil markets.
Marching alongside a truck filled with palm oil fruit, farmers held a rally outside the offices of the Indonesian Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is leading the government policy.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Malaysian farmers are wearing full smiles, Indonesian farmers suffer,” one of the signs held up by protesters read.
Malaysia is the second-largest producer of palm oil and has said it aims to supply markets left open by Indonesia’s export ban.
In a statement, the smallholder farmers’ group APKASINDO said since the announcement of the export ban the price of palm fruit had dropped 70 percent below the floor price set by regional authorities.
Meanwhile, APKASINDO estimated that at least 25 percent of palm oil mills had stopped buying palm fruit from independent farmers.
The protesters also planned to march to the presidential palace, the group said.
Similar protests were also being held in 22 other provinces, it said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo imposed the export ban on palm oil and its derivative products used in the making of cooking oil after a series of policies failed to control the price of the basic household food item.
A survey this week showed the approval ratings for Widodo hit the lowest level since December 2015 due to rising prices.
Figures released by pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia showed that satisfaction with Widodo fell to 58.1 percent this month, the lowest since December 2015 when the president’s approval rating slumped to 53 percent.
Indonesian Chief Minister of Economics Airlangga Hartarto has said the ban would stay in place until bulk cooking oil prices drop to 14,000 rupiah (US$0.96) per liter across Indonesia.
Indonesian Ministry of Trade data showed that bulk cooking oil was priced on average at 17,300 rupiah per liter on Friday.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate
BACK TO BATTLE: North Korean soldiers have returned to the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region after earlier reports that Moscow had withdrawn them following heavy losses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals as part of a push to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s penchant for a deal. The US president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine’s war with Russia, on Monday said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskiy said, emphasizing Ukraine’s need for security guarantees