Indonesia raises October CPO reference price to $1,042.15 per tonne, cocoa up 7.49%

Indonesia's Ministry of Trade has raised the reference price for crude palm oil (CPO) to US$1,042.15 per metric tonne for the period 1–31 October 2026, an increase of US$34.64 or 3.44% from US$1,007.51 per tonne in September, according to detikFinance. The reference price is the basis for calculating Indonesia's palm oil export duty and the export levy collected for the plantation fund agency BPDP.

Tommy Andana, Director General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Trade, said the export duty on crude palm oil is set at US$178 per tonne under the applicable Finance Ministry regulation, while the export levy equals 12.5% of the reference price, or US$130.269 per tonne for October. "There was an increase in the CPO reference price for the October 2026 period compared with the September 2026 period," Tommy said in a statement quoted by detikFinance on Friday, 2 October 2026. Taken together, duty and levy come to US$308.269 per tonne of crude palm oil shipped.

Price sources and the median rule

The reference price is derived from average prices recorded between 20 August and 19 September 2026 at three sources. The Indonesian CPO exchange averaged US$938.89 per tonne, the Malaysian CPO exchange US$1,145.42 per tonne, and the port of Rotterdam US$1,526.56 per tonne, trubus.id reported.

Under Trade Ministry Regulation (Permendag) No. 35 of 2025, when the spread between the three price sources exceeds US$40, the reference price is calculated from the average of the two sources that form the median and lie closest to it. For October that meant the Malaysian and Indonesian exchanges, producing the US$1,042.15 figure and leaving the much higher Rotterdam quotation out of the calculation.

Refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein sold in branded packaging with a net weight of 25 kg or less carries an export duty of US$48 per tonne. The list of brands covered is set out in Trade Minister Decree (Kepmendag) No. 1922 of 2026.

Cocoa beans up 7.49%

The reference price for cocoa beans was set at US$6,057.87 per tonne for October 2026, up US$422.12 or 7.49% from the previous period. The export benchmark price for cocoa beans rose to US$5,686 per tonne, an increase of US$416 or 7.88% from September. The export duty on cocoa beans is 7.5% for October, with the export levy also at 7.5%.

Tommy said reference and benchmark prices are determined with reference to market conditions, developments in international logistics costs and global trade dynamics. Concerns over falling output volumes and quality caused by the effects of El Niño in West Africa, the main cocoa-producing region, also contributed to the increase, trubus.id reported.

Forestry products move in both directions

Benchmark export prices for forestry and leather products showed no single direction for October 2026:

• Pine resin fell to US$1,020 per tonne, down US$32 or 3.04% from September.
• Unchanged: leather products, chipwood, processed wood with a cross-section of 1,000–4,000 mm² from sungkai plantation timber, and merbau processed wood with a cross-section of 4,000–10,000 mm².
• Higher: processed wood with a cross-section of 1,000–4,000 mm² from meranti, mixed tropical species and other teak sortiments, as well as plantation pine, gmelina, acacia, balsa and eucalyptus.
• Lower: veneer from natural and plantation forest, plywood for packing boxes, wood in chips or particle, and processed wood with a cross-section of 1,000–4,000 mm² from merbau, other ebony sortiments and plantation rubber and sengon.

The settings for the CPO reference price, the cocoa bean reference and benchmark export prices, and the benchmark prices for leather, wood products and pine resin are contained in Trade Minister Decree (Kepmendag) No. 1921 of 2026 on benchmark export prices and reference prices for agricultural and forestry products subject to export duty and public service agency tariffs.