Indonesia to bypass ‘neighbour’ middlemen in natural resource exports

JAKARTA – Indonesia wants to bypass “neighbouring countries” as intermediaries for natural resource exports, including crude palm oil (CPO), arguing that routing shipments through third countries costs the country billions of rupiah in potential revenue and weakens its control over the commodity trade.Coordinating Food Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the country should ship palm oil, as well as other top export commodities, directly to final buyers rather than selling it to neighbouring countries that subsequently re-export the commodity at higher prices.