Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Prolonged hot summer or El Nino could be the cause of the decline in food crop productivity in Indonesia. However, this does not happen with palm oil.

General Chair of the Central Leadership Council (DPP) of the Indonesian Palm Oil Farmers Association (APKASINDO) Gulat ME Manurung said that the production of oil palm plants was not significantly affected by El Nino. Oil palms actually need sufficient sunlight to grow and develop.

“I am happy that there is El Nino because palm oil is in the C4 cycle, it requires high sunlight intensity. El Nino is a little disturbing because of the peat, but palm oil is an adaptive plant for situations with high sunlight,” he said in a CNBC Indonesia Special Dialogue on the topic of Managing the Future of Palm Oil. Indonesia at the Tendean Tower Building, Jakarta, Thursday (16/11/2023).

However, Gulat said that recently there has been a decline in palm oil production. But the cause is not because of El Nino but because farmers don’t want to fertilize.

“Production decreased not because of El Nino but because of fertilizer, not El Nino,” he stressed.

Gulat explained that many oil palm farmers do not want to fertilize their crops because the price of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) has fallen due to the actions of speculators. Meanwhile, fertilizer prices and production costs are increasingly expensive. This ultimately causes a decline in palm oil production.

“The next effect that occurred was because he didn’t fertilize because the price of FFB wasn’t there. When he wanted to fertilize, there was a high temperature, he wouldn’t even fertilize in high weather. This problem was simple, initially it was the price of fertilizer and fertilization,” he explained.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(wur/wur)