• Reuters reported that Brazilian soybean farmers in Mato Grosso, which is one of the key soybean producing regions, may start harvesting the crop before the end of December 2018. Farmers in Mato Grosso have finished planting soybeans. Brazil’s overall soybean planting reached 89% of the 35.8mil hectares targeted to be planted in the 2018E/2019F season compared with a historical average of 78%.

• Reuters also said that talks to allow Argentine soymeal to enter China’s market are progressing slower than expected due to bureaucratic issues. These include China’s demand to inspect crushing plants in Argentina. Argentina’s president hopes to announce a deal at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this month. However, the deadline is beginning to look ambitious. According to Reuters, the opening of the China market would be a boon to Argentina as the location of the country’s soybean processing plants between the Pampas and deepwater ports of Parana makes it the world’s most efficient place to crush soybean.

• Business Standard of India reported that Indonesia is interested to buy sugar from India. However, Indonesia would like the import duty on refined palm oil to be lowered to 45%. India is in talks with a few countries including Indonesia and China to export surplus sugar and help clear the inventory at the sugar mills. Indonesia has suggested a trading arrangement under the India-Asean Free Trade Agreement whereby the import duties on refined palm oil and sugar are harmonised to 45% and 5% respectively. According to Business Standard, Indonesia has argued that under the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between Malaysia and India, which will come into effect in 2019F, the import duty on Malaysia’s refined palm oil will be 45% compared with 50% under the India-Asean FTA.

• According to Jakarta Post, Greenpeace Indonesia has responded to a statement by APINDO (Indonesian Employers Association) and APKASINDO (Indonesian Oil Palm Farmers Association) that called on the Indonesia government to take action against Greenpeace. APINDO and APKASINDO made the statement in response to Greenpeace’s rally on a tanker owned by Wilmar International, which was transporting CPO from Riau to Europe. An official with Greenpeace Indonesia said that Greenpeace is not anti-palm oil. Instead, it is antideforestation. Greenpeace said that the Palm Oil Innovation Group was an example of a multistakeholder initiative from progressive oil palm producers and NGOs.

• Business Green of UK reported that social enterprise, Giki has built a new “palm oil detector” into its mobile app, which shoppers can use to find out if a product has been made with palm oil from a certified source. The detector was developed in collaboration with the WWF and gives products a ”sustainable palm oil” stamp if they have been made with palm oil traced from sources certified by the RSPO. Shoppers simply scan the bar code to retrieve the supply chain information.

Source: AmInvest Research - 3 Dec 2018