Structural transformation from agriculture sector to industry sector will increase income per capita and ushering Indonesian people from an agrarian to an economy that relies on the process of increasing industrial value-added, accelerated by development of digital technology.
- Digitalization of the Upstream Industry. Palm oil is one of leading commodity in Indonesia, that plays a big role on the national economic, and it contributed on the foreign exchange and employment. Growth of downstream palm oil industry in Indonesia is in line with the growth of plantation area and palm oil production as a source of raw materials. Besides producing CPO products, fresh fruit bunches also produces Palm Kernel Oil (PKO). Production of PKO grows as CPO products increase, around 10% of the CPO produced.
- Digitalization of Midstream Industry. Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) can produce various types of midstream product that can be produced as raw material for the downstream industry for food and non-food category. Among the midstream industry groups, it includes the fatty acid, fatty alcohol, fatty amines, methyl ester, glycerol.
- Digitalization of Downstream Industry. The palm oil midstream industry produces various type of products, most of the products has potential market share, for both domestic and export market share. The development of downstream palm oil industry needs to be implemented immediately concerning high value-added of downstream palm oil products. Downstream palm oil industry has a vast spectrum, with more than 100 downstream products which can be produced on an industrial scale. However, only 23 downstream product types that has been commercially produced in Indonesia.
In context of facing revolution industry 4.0, palm oil industry needs to develop quickly especially on digital technology aspects, because the growth of digital technology will be the main key of Indonesian's competitiveness in the future.
The development of technology in the palm oil industry is important for Indonesia to compete with other countries. If we do not make improvements from the upstream sector to the downstream sector, we will not only be unable to reach the target but will be left behind by other countries that are more prepared in the global and domestic markets.
Challenges of the Indonesian Palm Oil Industry
Indonesia is the biggest palm oil producer in the world. The export of palm oil has a massive contribution to the Gross National Income (GNI); therefore, it gives big responsibility for government and producers to keep producing palm oil for domestic and global consumption.
eKomoditi Solutions Indonesia has the duty to help the development of palm oil industry so that plantations in Indonesia evolves into a modern plantation and ensuring palm oil commodity can compete in the global market.
Applications that has been developed by eKomoditi Solutions Indonesia are: (1) Electronic Plantations Control System (ePCS) is an application to control and monitor plantation operations using Android platform, (2) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a software to manage business organizations using digital platform, and lastly (3) PlantationDirectory.com is a marketplace to sell and buy plantation fields and products.
