Indonesian crude palm oil rose on Monday supported by good demand from local refiners after a four-day national holiday last week amid choppy trading in Malaysian crude palm oil futures. In Jakarta, the state marketing centre sold 1,000 tonnes of crude palm oil at 6,753 rupiah ($0.772) a kilogram, up from 6,727 rupiah a kilogram last week before the holiday.
In North Sumatra's median, crude palm was sold at 6,815 rupiah a kilogram in an auction, up from 6,787 rupiah a kilogram from last week. "Buyers returned to the market after keeping out for quite some time," said a dealer in Median, the leading port for palm oil exports.
Good local demand supported prices amid choppy trading in Malaysian crude palm oil futures which slipped 0.8 percent on Monday as export data failed to impress the market and players booked profits. In Jakarta, olein was sold at 6,100 rupiah a kilogram in line with government instructions but outside the set price, olein was sold at 7,400 rupiah a kilogram, rising from 7,350 rupiah last week.
The government has asked producers to sell a certain amount of cooking oil at lower prices to bring soaring local cooking oil prices down to a range of 6,500 rupiah to 6,800 rupiah. Cooking oil is a staple and any rise in its price is politically sensitive.
Crude palm oil producers have committed to releasing up to 150,000 tonnes of cooking oil to the market to ease soaring retail prices. Crude palm oil is subject to a 1.5 percent export tax while other palm oil products, including cooking oil, are subject to a 0.3 percent export tax.