Central Africa is looking beyond traditional partners as it seeks to rebuild an agricultural sector capable of serving both domestic demand and international markets. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, palm oil has emerged as one area where cooperation with Southeast Asia is beginning to provide practical expertise in productivity, smallholder development, processing, and sustainability.
The DRC applied to join to the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) in 2025 and was formally admitted as a full member in December, becoming the first African country to join the organization. The council, founded by Indonesia and Malaysia, gives the DRC access to a platform that brings together some of the world's leading palm oil producers and provides a channel for technical cooperation and knowledge sharing.
That partnership quickly moved beyond the institutional level. From October 23 to November 1, 2025, a CPOPC delegation worked with smallholder farmers in the DRC's Mongala and Tshopo provinces. Training sessions in Yaligimba brought together experts from Malaysia and Indonesia and focused on strengthening local capacity and promoting more sustainable production practices.
The cooperation comes as the DRC seeks to build a more integrated palm oil industry. Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC), the country's leading palm oil producer, has been expanding production while organizing and training smallholders and investing in greater processing capacity. Its broader strategy combines productivity improvements with sustainability, technology transfer, and stronger links between agricultural production and local communities.
PHC is also planning a palm oil refinery, with the project expected to be operational by 2028. The facility would allow the company to move further into local processing and capture more value from palm oil produced in the DRC. PHC produced about 80,000 metric tons of palm oil in 2023 and has set a target of reaching 100,000 metric tons by 2026.
This is where Indonesia's experience becomes particularly relevant. Indonesia has developed one of the world's largest palm oil industries by combining large-scale plantations with processing, exports, and a substantial smallholder sector. For the DRC, the most relevant lesson is not simply how to expand plantation output, but how to connect smallholders to formal value chains, raise productivity, improve processing capacity, and build a more competitive downstream industry.
The DRC does not need to reproduce Indonesia's plantation model. Its challenge is different. It needs to raise yields, improve access to inputs and technology, organize smallholders, expand domestic processing, and connect producers to reliable markets while meeting increasingly demanding sustainability requirements.
That makes the cooperation more than a conventional commodity partnership. For the DRC, cooperation with Indonesia and Malaysia can provide practical experience in building an agricultural value chain. For Indonesia, engagement with an emerging African producer creates another channel for South-South cooperation and an access to a market with substantial agricultural potential.
The broader lesson is that Central Africa's engagement with Asian economies does not have to revolve around minerals. Agriculture can also become a channel for technology transfer, skills development, and industrialization. Palm oil offers one example of how expertise developed in Southeast Asia could help Central African producers capture more value from a crop that has long been part of the region's agricultural economy.
