Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Indonesia saw a double-digit growth in its palm oil exports this year as the price of the country's top commodity soars, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Indonesia exported around $16.66 billion in crude palm oil (CPO) and its processed products between January and August 2025. Southeast Asia's biggest economy had sold about $12.32 billion of palm oil to its foreign partners over the same period last year.

"So our palm oil exports grew by 35.23 percent year-on-year [yoy] in the first eight months of 2025," M Habibullah, a deputy for statistics production at BPS, told a press conference on Wednesday.

BPS attributed the growth to price increases of the said agricultural commodity.

Indonesia had been selling its palm oil at an average price of $1,041.32 a ton over the same period, up by 19.91 percent yoy. The average price averaged at around $868.42 a ton last year.

Export volume surged 13.56 percent yoy from 14.26 million tons to 16.20 million tons. The agency, however, did not reveal Indonesia's top palm oil export market destinations. Even so, data showed vegetable oils made up a huge chunk of Indonesia's exports to fellow BRICS economy India. New Delhi-bound animal or vegetable oils and fats totaled $2.73 billion in January-August. This is equivalent to 21.71 percent of Indonesia's non-oil and gas exports to India.

US President Donald Trump's import duties of 19 percent on Indonesian goods already kicked in on August 7. The Indonesian government has been nudging the Trump administration to give tariff exemptions for its palm oil. "We exported around 2.6 million tons of CPO and its derivatives [to the US] in August alone," Habibullah said, without going into details on the export value.

Habibullah also gave the latest developments in Indonesia's trade with the European Union (EU), with whom Jakarta will have a free trade agreement by early 2027. The statistics body reported that Indonesia's palm oil products entering the EU market reached $192.64 million in August. However, the eight-month export to Europe totaled $1.27 billion, BPS reported.

Soaring palm oil exports also helped Indonesia maintain its 64-month trade surplus streak since May 2020.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesias-palm-oil-export-soars-35-to-over-16-billio