Indonesia plans to launch an Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standard to anticipate demand from importers.
“It will be launched on Wednesday (March 30) (by agriculture minister Suswono). The ISPO will be officially effective as of March 2012 and it is hoped all oil palm plantation companies will have obtained the ISPO certificate by 2014,” vice minister of agriculture, Bayu Krisnamurti, said here on Tuesday at the conference marking the 100th anniversary of Indonesia Palm Oil Industry held by the North Sumatra chapter of the Association of Indonesia Palm Oil Businessmen (Gapki) here from March 28 to 30.
He said the policy of implementing ISPO certification was taken in anticipation of decisions from importing countries of CPO and its derivatives to only buy from exporters possessing certificates of palm oil sustainability.
Actually, he said, the ISPO provisions have partially been implemented for many years because in Indonesia no company may operate without a license.
The content of the ISPO is not much different from Europe’s Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that had earlier been implemented, he said.
(The ISPO is better matched) because it was made in reference to the conditions and regulations in Indonesia, he said.
National palm oil regulations will be referred to the ISPO, including the possibility that Indonesia could determine the selling price of its CPO, now determined by the bourse in Rotterdam.
He said companies that already possessed RSPO certificates must also have ISPO because they operate in Indonesia.
Bayu said ISPO is facing four challenges to becoming a competitive power or a national palm oil power, namely assuring that its process would be easy and appropriate, providing auditing and auditors, establishing certificates for farmers and acheiving the acceptance of buyers and international community.
Whatever the challenges, the ISPO must be implemented and the challenges must be faced to make the ISPO successful.
The general chairman of the Association of Indonesia Oil Palm Farmers (Apkasindo), Anizar Simanjuntak, said he welcomed the launching of the ISPO with the hope that the country could later determine the quality and price of CPO by itself.
He also hoped the ISPO would not be as expensive as RSPO certificates so that it would be affordable for smallholders.
The chairman of Gapki of North Sumatra chapter, Balaman Tarigan, said Gapki members are ready to get the ISPO certificate although some already had RSPO certificate.
