The people of Kalimantan should be connoisseurs of cooking oil that is cheap and free from shortages. However, they are enduring the opposite situation.
By
Dionisius Reynaldo Triwibowo / Sucipto
·5 minutes read
KOMPAS/DIONISIUS REYNALDO TRIWIBOWO
The customary forest area in Kinpan which was converted into an oil palm plantation, in Lamandau Regency, Central Kalimantan, Wednesday (9/9/2020).
What an irony. While Kalimantan is one of the largest crude palm oil-producing regions in Indonesia, the local people are struggling to cope with the scarcity of cooking oil. People who often clash with oil palm companies and palm oil producers have found it either difficult or unreasonably expensive to buy cooking oil because of its scarcity.
The country has been gripped by a cooking oil shortage, including people living off the coast of Balikpapan Bay, East Kalimantan. No minimarkets exist near fishing villages such as Jenebora, Gresik, Kampung Baru, and Pantai Lango, so village residents have to cross the bay to downtown Balikpapan to procure cooking oil and other basic needs.
Residents usually travel by boat to get to the mainland. However, fishing families whose breadwinners use motorboats to go fishing in the early morning cannot wait until dusk to buy cooking oil. They have to spend between Rp 50,000 and Rp 60,000 on one-way boat trips to the mainland. The journey takes about 20 minutes.
Quite often, they come back home empty-handed because many outlets have run out of their supply of cooking oil. Titin (40), a resident of Jenebora, Penajam, East Kalimantan, seemed upset at the shortage of cooking oil.
Her dismay had other grounds. She said her husband, who is a fisherman as well as a middleman collecting crab and fish, had grown tired of dealing with companies transporting crude palm oil (CPO), coal, and other industrial commodities. She said the companies’ boats parked near the area where the fishermen cast their nets, often damaging traditional fishing gear.
"It's weird how [cooking oil] has becomes rare. In fact, the palm oil ship passes every day," Titin on Sunday (6/3/2022).
She spoke about the difficult times she was experiencing as she weighed the crab hauled in by fishermen. The fishermen caught crab or fish using a traditional tool called rakang. She said that in Kalimantan, cooking oil should be sold like fried nuts, cheap and plentiful.
The soaring price of cooking oils has also put small traders in difficulty. Marlia Rati (60), who owns a grocery shop in the Balikpapan Baru housing complex, buys half a liter of packaged cooking oil at Rp 11,000 and retails it for Rp 13,000. Before the commodity became scarce, she bought it for Rp 7,000. Purchases have also been restricted to six packages per buyer.
It's weird how [cooking oil] has becomes rare. In fact, the palm oil ship passes every day,
After the government issued a single-price policy for packaged cooking oil, Marlia became desperate. Buying the cooking oil at high prices, she found it impossible to retail it for Rp 9,000 like before.
The cooking oil shortage has also afflicted Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. Selin Prescilia (25), a housewife in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, had to queue for two hours to get cheap cooking oil. She said she bought cooking oil retailed at a price of Rp 46,000 for 2 liters.
Santi (38), a housewife in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, spent Rp 19,000 per liter. In Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, the price of cooking oil ranges between Rp 16,000 and Rp 18,000 per liter, above the highest government-set retail price of Rp 14,000 per liter.
Kompas/Priyombodo (PRI)
A worker loads palm fruit onto a truck in Semoi 2 village, Sepaku, North Penajam Paser Regency, East Kalimantan, Thursday (11/3/2021). Oil palm is the main plantation crop in North Penajam Paser district, East Kalimantan.
Producing area
The situation is a mockery of Kalimantan’s status as one of the largest oil palm cultivation centers. Based the province’s handbook, West Kalimantan was home to 1.9 million hectares of oil palm plantations in 2020, and the second largest in Indonesia. The province’s CPO production reached 4.1 million tons that year.
With production at factories in Pontianak recording 15,000 metric tons per month, West Kalimantan experienced a surplus in cooking oil, since consumption demand reached just 4,151 tons per month.
Meanwhile, the East Kalimantan Plantations Office noted that by 2020, oil palm cultivation areas reached 1.3 million hectares. Most of the area belongs to plantation companies, which account for 986,662 hectares.
The fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) harvested from the oil palm plantations that were processed in 2020 was 17.7 tons, equivalent to 3.8 million tons of CPO. The CPO production in East Kalimantan was expected to increase to 4 million tons in 2021.
According to the Central Kalimantan Statistics Agency (BPS), 1.8 million hectares of private oil palm plantations were actively operating in 2021, while 166,926 hectares of smallholder oil palm plantations were in production. Total oil palm production reached 5.9 million tons with the total CPO yield reaching around 8.8 million tons, or 25.3 percent of national CPO production.
As for South Kalimantan, the province had 426,948 hectares of oil palm plantations in 2021 that produced 1,134,684 tons of CPO.
Fitria Husnatarina, director of the Indonesia Stock Exchange Investment Gallery (Galeri Investasi) at the University of Palangka Raya (UPR), said that despite the province’s huge potential, Kalimantan did not have the capacity to absorb production.
"Kalimantan is the producer, but it is not actually the targeted consumption [market]," said the UPR economics and business school lecturer.
Alluding to the government’s plan to relocate the nation’s capital city to Kalimantan, she said the region should prepare to be not only a producing area, but also a potential market.
The people of Kalimantan should be connoisseurs of cooking oil that is cheap and free from shortages. However, they are enduring the opposite situation. (ESA/JUM)
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