Bali. Kharisma Pemasaran Bersama Nusantara or KPBN aims to make Indonesia take part in the dynamics of forming the global price of crude palm oil or CPO, and also become the price reference for both the domestic and global market, according to the company’s president director Rahmanto Amin Jatmiko.

Although Indonesia is the world’s largest palm oil producer, global industry players still refer to Malaysia’s MDEX and the Rotterdam Exchange in the Netherlands. 

KPBN has held CPO commodity exchanges for palm oil industry players in Indonesia since 1968. Its daily commodity exchange of CPO has become an integral part of making CPO prices in the country. Also, the Agriculture Ministry relies on KPBN as a benchmark for fresh fruit bunch prices from oil palm farmers. And the Energy Ministry has treated it as a reference for biodiesel subsidies.

"The upcoming program is establishing Indonesia to participate in coloring the dynamics of forming world CPO price through the activity of commodity exchanges held by KPBN, that is our determination and initiative," Rahmanto said in a statement on Thursday.

As an initial step, KPBN has teamed up with international news outlets Reuters and Bloomberg. 

"One of the benefits of this collaboration is that the prices formed through KPBN Commodity Exchange will appear on the terminal system platform from Bloomberg and Reuters, and side by side with information from other major world exchanges, making it possible to be accessed by interested parties not only in Indonesia but also worldwide,” Rahmanto said.

Rahmanto added that he hoped the collaboration could help strengthen KPBN’s footing both on the national and international levels, as it seeks to become one of the world-class plantation commodity exchanges.

"In the next two years, not only PTPN Group but also we are targeting private sector producers to take a bigger share in KPBN’s commodity exchange ecosystem platform," Rahmanto said.

KPBN is a subsidiary of the state-owned plantation holding company PTPN III. Commenting on this initiative, Holding Perkebunan Nusantara PTPN III president director Abdul Ghani said that the company fully supported KPBN in becoming a price reference for palm oil commodities in Indonesia. 

“We are aiming that the collaboration with Reuters and Bloomberg can generate a positive impact, thus the business climate of the palm oil industry in Indonesia can strengthen the economy as a whole," he said.