TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia-Malaysia producers may decide to ignore RSPO
Major producers of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia say they may disregard the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) if the international forum insists on raising the threshold on the principles and criteria for certification of mills and plantations
Change Size
M
ajor producers of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia say they may disregard the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) if the international forum insists on raising the threshold on the principles and criteria for certification of mills and plantations.
Indonesian producers have even moved further teaming up with government to establish a domestic forum in a bid to create principles and criteria that are compatible with conditions specific to the country.
RSPO is currently reviewing the certification criteria and may adopt new provisions, which may be deemed too restrictive by most producers in developing countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
A working group under RSPO said the new certification criteria should include routine monitoring of carbon intensity standards in all palm oil plantations.
All palm oil plantation areas, the working group proposes, must produce no more than 35 tons of carbon per hectare and cannot be allowed to be established on peat lands.
The working group is scheduled to meet with all and any stakeholders in Kuching, Malaysia, in May, to decide on these revisions.
Joko Supriyono, the secretary-general for the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers’ Association (Gapki), said six palm oil associations from both countries had agreed to reject the above amendments to the certification process.
“The existing certification process, which includes nine principles and 139 criteria for CPO certification, has already caused many difficulties for the industry … they cost so much and consume so much time, usually a year,” Joko said.
Joko said there were now only three Indonesian palm oil firms that could pass the certification process.
Palm oil producers, Joko said, only controlled about 30 percent of the voting rights in the palm oil forum while the rest were controlled by NGOs, big buyers, and banks.
“We will lose in the voting process … if the forum disregards our concerns, we will walk out and refuse to use our right to vote,” he said.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Bayu Khrisnamurti said Indonesia would soon have its own roundtable on sustainable palm oil. The ministry, he said, is currently working with the office of the coordinating economic minister to draft the provisions necessary for establishing the local forum.
Bayu said the domestic roundtable would be a response to unfair proceedings in RSPO, which had been heavily influenced by European perspectives.
“Some RSPO members are inconsistent. Take Unilever, it did not consult the forum when it made its decision based on reports from NGOs, instead they panicked,“ he said referring to the decision by the world’s biggest palm oil buyer to terminate all deals with Indonesian company, Sinar Mas, due to environmental concerns put forward by NGOs.
Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil, having contributed 44.5 percent to the world’s total output of 42.9 million tons in 2008, while Malaysia was the second biggest, having contributed 41 percent.
As from 2015, the entire group of European Union member states will only import CPO from companies whose production is certified by RSPO. (rch)
