BECAUSE OF SWITZERLAND, MAHKOTA GROUP (MGRO) CPO EXPORT MARKET IS INCREASED BY 50%
10 March 2021
Fresh air for Indonesia's flagship commodity, crude palm oil (CPO) or palm oil.
Switzerland as one of Indonesia's trading partners has authorized and granted import duty exemptions on CPO exports from Indonesia.
The import duty exemption policy was taken by the Swiss government after a referendum through voting by the public and decided at the parliamentary level while still considering input from various stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Sunday (7/3) local time.
The results show that 51.7% of Swiss people approve of the trade agreement between Indonesia and Switzerland.
Elvi, Corporate Secretary of PT Mahkota Group Tbk (MGRO) said the policy was positive news that had been awaited. Because the European continent is a difficult market for CPO exports from Indonesia.
“Hopefully this can also be followed by other countries that are members of the European Union and can increase our exports significantly,” Elvi told Kontan.co.id, Tuesday (9/3).
Elvi added, until now MGRO has not directly exported CPO to continental Europe. However, the easing is considered to increase CPO sales to customers who export directly to countries in continental Europe including Switzerland.
“MGRO does not directly export to Europe but corporate buyers who buy CPO products. So that MGRO's own export market will be gradually increased to 50% of total sales,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said that CPO prices as of early March 2021 began to increase in line with positive sentiments and were almost close to the highest price of around RM 3,900/ton for a decade.
Elvi also said, this year MGRO will focus on maximizing the installed production capacity in order to increase production output.
Thus, MGRO is also targeting production growth this year to grow 20% from last year's production target of around 230,000 tons. Meanwhile, sales are targeted to grow by 40%.