Palm Oil Industry Saves Indonesia’s Trade Balance

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated almost all aspects of our life, not just personally, but happens on a bigger scale, as well. International trade is one of the sectors that suffers due to the pandemic. When it comes to international trade, every country has its own transaction capabilities, not forget to mention that every country has an additional burden to the effects of the pandemic. Indonesia, obviously, has also been affected by this pandemic. Based on the latest report, several countries in the world were forced to reduce the number of orders of palm oil from Indonesia.
In the early 2020, when the pandemic first hit the world, several powerful countries even had to reduce the number of orders for palm oil to Indonesia. The largest reduction was carried out by China, where they, as one of the largest partners, had to reduce by 1.96 million tons. Not only China, Indonesia was also forced to lose a number of orders from various other countries, such as the European Union, Bangladesh, several countries in the Middle East, and even countries on the African continent. Although Indonesia has lost several orders from a number of countries due to the pandemic, there are also countries that have increased their order, including; Pakistan and India. Unfortunately, the number isn’t sufficient enough to compensate for how much Indonesia have lost.
However, it must be noted that the pandemic has also infected almost every country in the world, therefore, Indonesia is quite optimistic to overcome the economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on our record, by the end of 2020, palm oil commodities export had contributed as much as USD 22.97 billion. We can conclude that the palm oil industry has succeeded in making Indonesia’s trade balance positive with USD 21.27 billion.
Looking at this positive trend, Indonesia strongly believes that 2021 will also be a good year, because export is predicted to increase significantly as the vaccination program goes on. Not only for the palm oil industry, but this positive trend is believed to have a good impact on other commodities, as well.
Source:
https://news.majalahhortus.com/ekspor-minyak-sawit-indonesia-reach-usd-2297-miliar/