Palm oil prices shot higher and the Indonesian rupiah lost ground on Monday after Jakarta levied a blanket ban on exports of the edible oil in a bid to contain surging food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The move by Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter of palm oil, is the latest food export ban being implemented by countries around the world suffering from soaring food prices.
“This is yet another reminder of the vulnerability present across agricultural supply chains in an environment of already historically tight inventories, compounded by the indefinite loss of Ukrainian export volumes and historically high production costs,” said Tracey Allen, a JPMorgan analyst in London.