INDONESIA TO IMPORT PALM OIL, FEARS MAY SHORTAGE

  Indonesia has issued licences to
  traders to import palm oil to avert a possible shortage of
  cooking oil during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan in May,
  Trade Minister Rachmat Saleh told Reuters.
      "We have given permission for a small amount of imports to
  prevent a shortage during Ramadan," he said. He gave no figures
  for the amount of palm oil to be imported, but said it would
  come from Malaysia.
      Indonesia, the world's second largest palm oil producer,
  earlier denied it had granted palm oil import licences.
      Saleh was replying to a question from Reuters after traders
  in London said Indonesia had issued licences to import around
  135,000 tonnes of palm oil for delivery in April.
      Indonesia, with 168 mln people, is the world's largest
  Moslem country. During Ramadan Moslems fast during the day and
  have large meals after sunset.
      Indonesian crude palm oil exports in the first 11 months of
  1986 were 469,100 tonnes, according to central bank figures,
  against 652,000 tonnes in the whole of calendar 1985.
      Indonesia is expanding palm oil output, and Saleh did not
  explain why there might be a shortage during Ramadan.
  

