JAKARTA: Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm plantation permits is set to expire this week as the industry awaits clarity on whether the government will extend the policy. Since the moratorium, the government has found about 3 million hectares of palm oil plantation operating without permits in forest areas. The Southeast Asian country has identified about 16.4 million hectares of land planted with the crop, of which 6.72 million hectares belong to smallholders. Crude palm oil production is set to rise but land expansion could grow slower as existing plantations take advantage of their land bank, said Sathia Varqa, owner of Palm Oil Analytics in Singapore. He expects Indonesia’s output to rise by 2 million tons to 48 million tons this year as production increases in frontier areas like Kalimantan.
