JAKARTA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's trade ministry has decided to hold zero percent export tax for crude palm oil (CPO) and 5 percent for cocoa for next month's shipment, director general for foreign trade of the trade ministry Oke Nurwan said.
Although the reference prices for both agricultural commodities moved up for May, they were not strong enough to move up the export tariffs for the commodities in May, the director said.
"The reference prices for CPO remains below the threshold of 750 U.S. dollars per metric ton, and the hike of the cocoa reference price also failed to change the export tax," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
CPO reference prices for May edged 4.67 percent higher to 573.31 U.S. dollars per metric ton, and for cocoa, it drifted up 4.49 percent to 2,328.05 U.S. dollars per metric ton, said Nurwan.
Indonesia, logging about 12 million hectares of palm oil plantation across the vast archipelagic nation, registered a record high output of 43 million tons last year, or 12.5 percent higher from the presiding year, according to the data from the country's palm oil grower association.
Indonesia is among the world's top three cocoa producers along with Ghana and Cote d'lvoire.
