Indonesia will ban the export of cooking oil and its raw materials from April 28 to tackle domestic shortages and control surging cooking oil costs, President Joko Widodo said Friday.
“I will monitor and evaluate the implementation of this policy so [that] availability of cooking oil in the domestic market becomes abundant and affordable,” the president said in a video broadcast, local media Tempo.co reported.
Authorities have been struggling to control the domestic market for palm oil-based cooking oil after prices surged 40 percent at the start of the year due to high global prices, with the average price of cooking oil 26,436 rupiah ($1.84) per liter.
…