President Joko Widodo announced Thursday that Indonesia will lift its restriction on palm oil exports next week, easing pressure on the global vegetable oil market after prices soared due to the suspension and the war in Ukraine.
In the face of a domestic shortage, the island nation enacted the restriction last month to ensure supplies of the material, which is used in everything from chocolate spreads to cosmetics.
“I determined that cooking oil exports will reopen on Monday, May 23,” Widodo said in an online briefing, “based on the supply… of cooking oil and considering there are 17 million individuals in the palm oil business — farmers and other supporting workers.”