Legislator highlights declining price of CPOJakarta

(ANTARA News) - A member of the House`s Commission VI dealing with trade and investment Alfridel Jinu hightlighted a drop in the price of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derivatives in the past days. Alfridel Jinu here on Sunday said the government in the near future would announce a policy on sharp drop of the prices of CPO and cooking oil. "The most fundamental that the public has to know is just about the use of cooking oil subsidy amounting to Rp600 billion," he said.

He said it sounded strange if the government still channelled the subsidy for cooking oil. Therefore in a working meeting with trade minister in the near future, members of the House`s Commission VI would ask for the details in the use of subsidy concerned. "We still listern to the ongoing program on subsidy for cooking oil," Afridel, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, said.

CPO prices at farmers level including cooking oil suffered a sharp drop. CPO and cooking oil producers opined that the decrease in prices was due to the global financial crisis. In addition to carrying cost efficiency in all levels, palm oil tree plantation either managed by the private or state owned companies which are on the threshold of bunkruptcy, because production cost is higher than the price of CPO selling price. (*)
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source: antara.co.id