Help us fight the campaign against palm oil: Indonesia asks Liberia

Indonesia. Indonesia recently asked Liberia for support in fighting the smear campaign against palm oil, as Jakarta remains concerned about Europe's policies toward its most important commodity.

Palm oil has been discriminated against in the West. Critics accuse the sector of being responsible for deforestation, among other things. At the heart of this campaign against palm oil is the European Union, or EU, anti-deforestation law. This law – commonly known by its acronym EUDR – will likely make it more difficult for Indonesian palm oil to enter the European market, as the Union will require traders to prove that the oil does not come from deforested land.

Although the EUDR is still months away from coming into full effect in December this year, Indonesia is trying to garner as much support as possible. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo even raised the issue when he received his Liberian counterpart Joseph Nyumah Boakai on the sidelines of the Indonesia-Africa Forum in Bali on Monday.

“The palm oil industry is often the target of black campaigns in the Western world, including the discriminatory EUDR policy. Indonesia continues to fight against this negative campaign and hopes that Liberia can continue to support [us]”, Jokowi told Boakai.

The government only broadcast the initial part of the talks. As can be seen from the broadcast excerpt, the Liberian president did not respond to Jokowi's call for help to protect the palm oil industry.

According to a document from the UN Development Programme, oil palm is grown on over one million hectares in Liberia. About 21.2 percent of farming households produce palm oil. The Liberian oil sector employs over 220,000 people.

Data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) showed that Liberia exported $90.8 million worth of palm oil in 2022, with exports going mainly to the Netherlands.

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