| INDONESIA SEES CPO PRICE RISING SHARPLY | |
| Indonesia expects crude palm oil (CPO) | |
| prices to rise sharply to between 450 and 550 dlrs a tonne FOB | |
| sometime this year because of better European demand and a fall | |
| in Malaysian output, Hasrul Harahap, junior minister for tree | |
| crops, told Indonesian reporters. | |
| Prices of Malaysian and Sumatran CPO are now around 332 | |
| dlrs a tonne CIF for delivery in Rotterdam, traders said. | |
| Harahap said Indonesia would maintain its exports, despite | |
| making recent palm oil purchases from Malaysia, so that it | |
| could possibly increase its international market share. | |
| Indonesia, the world's second largest producer of palm oil | |
| after Malaysia, has been forced to import palm oil to ensure | |
| supplies during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan. | |
| Harahap said it was better to import to cover a temporary | |
| shortage than to lose export markets. | |
| Indonesian exports of CPO in calendar 1986 were 530,500 | |
| tonnes, against 468,500 in 1985, according to central bank | |
| figures. | |