/data/photo/2012/04/03/1156537780x390.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "The History of Cooking Oil, The Shift from Copra Coconut to Palm Oil Pages all")
KOMPAS.com – Cooking oil Palm oil has recently caught the attention of the public, because the price of oil has soared quite rapidly, which is in the range of Rp. 18,000-Rp. 20,000 per liter.
Responding to the screams of the community, the government then made a new policy so that prices cooking oil Palm oil also fell as of February 1, 2022 to Rp 11,500 – Rp 14,000 per liter.
In the midst of the public’s attention to palm cooking oil, did you know that oil palm is not native to Indonesia? And that in the past Indonesia did not use palm cooking oil as cooking oil?
Also read: The Latest Cooking Oil Price List Effective From Today
quote Compass Daily, August 30, 1975, oil palm is a plant originating from Africa and was first imported to Indonesia in 1848.
At that time there were four oil palm seedlings imported, of which two were through Amsterdam, while the other was through Reunion. The oil palm seeds were then planted in the Bogor Botanical Gardens.
Initially, this plant was planted as a road decoration plant around tobacco plantations.
Because the fruit production is good, Dutch entrepreneurs are then interested in establishing oil palm plantations.
Starting in 1911 the palm oil industry was developing in North Sumatra. At the same time, the British then also opened oil palm plantations in Malaysia.
In 1974 the area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia had reached 170,000 hectares spread across the Sumatran region.
Although in Indonesia oil palm is grown on large plantations, but in its native land, Africa, oil palm is only grown as a crop of ordinary people.
Also read: Cooking Oil Price List Valid February 1, Starting from IDR 11,500 Per Liter
Use of palm oil as cooking oil
As quoted from the book Life of Panderes Gula Kelapa Farmers in Pangandaran, In the past, Indonesian people used coconut oil as an option for cooking oil.
Before using palm oil, Indonesians used to fry dishes using coconut oil.-Even around the 1960s, coconuts (Cocos nucifera) is one of the commodities needed in the country following the very high demand for coconut cooking oil.
At that time, the government even provided support in the form of a program for establishing People’s Core Plantation (PIR) which was established in several areas including the Pangandaran area as an area with lots of coconut trees.
Coconut plantations at that time were expected to meet the lack of demand for coconut flesh to be used as copra.
Copra itself is the flesh of old coconuts that are dried and used as the main raw material for making coconut cooking oil in people’s factories.
Also read: How to Make Cooking Oil from Coconut and Its History
At one point, the community finally discovered the fact that the more efficient raw material used for cooking oil is palm oil and not coconut.
quote Compass Daily, June 16, 1979, the government at that time began to rely on the supply of palm oil instead of coconut oil for cooking oil.
One of the factors for the emergence of this policy is because coconut oil in the international market has soared so that it is not economical to import coconut oil to meet domestic cooking oil needs.
“Palm oil as cooking oil in the long term will be preferred by consumers over ex-coconut oil because cooking oil from palm oil does not contain chemicals that can cause cholesterol,” said the Minister of Trade and Cooperatives at the time, Radius Prawiro.
Meanwhile quoting Compass Daily, August 4, 1984, palm oil also received more priority from the government because from a technical and economic point of view it was faster to produce than coconut.
Thanks to various underlying factors, oil palm slowly began to shift ordinary coconut to become a commodity for cooking oil.
The price of coconuts is so weak or cheap. Until a number of coconut farmers then switched to processing coconut into coconut sugar.
Also read: 6 Alternative Cooking Oils of Palm Oil Substitutes for Cooking
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