Indonesian Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices traded on the London commodity exchange remain above US$600/ton. According to Bloomberg data, Indonesian CPO prices for the next month's contract closed at US$630/ton on Thursday (May 24th), up 0.8% from the previous day's close and 0.4% from the end of last year. However, since the beginning of 2017, CPO prices have shown a downward trend, as seen in the graph below.
During his recent visit to Indonesia, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang agreed to increase CPO import quotas from Indonesia by 500,000 tons. The Indonesian government's move to boost the palm oil market in China is related to the European Parliament's approval of an energy proposal that would phase out palm oil as a biodiesel feedstock by 2021 and vegetable oils by 2030.
As is known, Indonesia is the world's largest CPO producer, surpassing Malaysia. Indonesia's palm oil production in 2016 reached 31.5 million tons, with exports totaling 25.1 million tons.
(Read Databoks: Indonesian Palm Oil Production and Exports)
(Read Databoks: Indonesia, the World's Largest Palm Oil Exporter)