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Jakarta. The Agriculture Ministry in cooperation with the Indonesian embassy in Rome has held a business meeting there to promote the country’s palm oil.

The meeting, entitled “Business Meeting on Promoting Indonesia’s Sustainable Palm Oil,” was attended by 41 investors and producers.

Speakers included Indonesian Ambassador to Italy Mohamad Oemar and Fadhil Hasan, executive director of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki).

In his address, Oemar said the government has been giving particular attention to environmental considerations long before the production of crude palm oil had become an environmental issue.

“The government of the Republic of Indonesia has issued various regulations that requires producers to give attention to the environmental aspects,” he said.

He added that the potential for investments in the downstream palm oil industry was between $560 million to $750 million by 2020.

Zaenal Bachruddin, the Agriculture Ministry’s director general of product processing and marketing, said the Indonesian CPO industry was a major driver for growth and development in the Indonesian economy.

“The Indonesian CPO exports to Italia can be further increased considering that Italia is one of the world’s main CPO consumers,” Zaenal said.

The palm oil industry last year generated $10.4 billion worth of exports, or 11 percent of Indonesia’s non-oil and gas exports.