APINDOSU VICE CHAIRMAN USLI SARSI "ENERGY CRISIS, EUROPE NEEDS PALM OIL"
29 December 2023
By 2023, several European countries will be in recession and by 2024 the number is expected to increase. The recession that occurred has begun to be felt in the second quarter of 2022. The European countries experiencing recession in 2023 include Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Greece and several others.
The recession faced by many European countries will have an impact on the economies of other countries, although it will not adversely affect the global economy.
“In fact, the problem of European countries is the availability of energy to meet domestic needs,” said Vice Chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) of North Sumatra in charge of Agriculture and Plantations, Usli Sarsi.
Since Russia's war with Ukraine, European countries have begun to experience energy difficulties. This is because Russia as a gas supplier limits supplies to European countries because it defends Ukraine.
Usli said, European countries can get energy from sunlight, wind. But these energy sources are very limited and cannot meet the needs. Meanwhile, vegetable oils such as sunflowers, soybeans produced by farmers cannot be used as a source of energy but for food needs.
“The vegetable oil produced by the farmers of European countries is also not able to meet the needs of the country,” said Usli Sarsi.
Meanwhile, obtaining energy sources from coal, which is cheaper, is certainly not easy because it will be rejected by various parties. The use of coal is not very environmentally friendly.
The most likely use of energy, Usli said, is from palm oil which can produce biofuel, biogas, biomass because it is cheaper and environmentally friendly.
He said that if the use of biofuels, biogas, biomass as a solution for European countries to obtain energy would certainly benefit Indonesia as the world's largest palm oil producer.
“I am very confident that the demand for palm oil from European countries will continue to increase from the previous year,” Usli Sarsi said.
If European countries need palm oil products for energy, Indonesia is one of them that can meet these needs. Meanwhile, other countries such as Africa, Brazil, China, which are also palm oil producers, are unable to meet Europe's needs.
Usli said, the Deforestation Law released by Europe is actually to protect European farmers from attacks from cheaper palm oil products such as CPO. But because the vegetable oil produced by European farmers cannot meet their domestic needs, let alone for energy needs, the Deforestation Law will have the opportunity to be relaxed.