The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) grouping has described its recently concluded 9th Annual Roundtable Meeting (RT9) as a success given the growing number of its members as well as the record attendance of about 1,000 delegates at the international sustainable palm oil event.
RSPO secretary-general Darrel Webber said stakeholders from the entire palm oil supply chain globally had put aside their qualms on the RSPO, hence generating a sense of solidarity at the event.
“There is strong focus and support for the RSPO. All members have agreed to share the responsibility.
“More importantly, more Western consumers have made serious pledges towards purchasing the RSPO certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) by 2015 and some even agreed to do it much earlier,” Webber added.
Furthermore, many oil palm plantation companies and investors had expressed willingness to help oil palm smallholders in the growing regions by funding their RSPO certification cost.
Webber pointed out that huge efforts were also seen in the RSPO greenhouse gases (GHG) working group which had come up with a calculator to measure the foot print of planters on the per tonne of CPO basis, while new emerging economies like India and China have also indicated interests to purchase the CSPO.
Webber also said that the current CSPO production at 5.2 million tonnes was in a surplus situation when compared with the demand from the Western countries.
“Buyers are still not buying enough but the RSPO is positive that our newly launched RSPO trademark last year will be able to create more awareness and also the demand for CSPO,” he added.
He said currently, there were applications for the use of the RSPO trademark from 11 countries.
Webber also assured demand for CSPO would continue to grow as “the RSPO certification is gaining significant impact not only among the Malaysian and Indonesian oil palm growers, but also new oil palm growing areas like Thailand, Africa and South America.”
Meanwhile, Netherlands-based Product Board for Margarine, Fats and Oils (MVO) chairman Wim Oosterhuis said more Western palm oil consuming nations were making serious commitments to increase their offtakes for CSPO.
Despite recent grouses by oil palm growers from Malaysia and Indonesia on the poor offtake of the premium oil, he said Holland, Germany and Britain were among those pledging to up their offtakes for CSPO.
“We are actively demanding for our palm oil processers, retailers and end-product manufacturers to opt for 100% CSPO with many giving the deadline (for CSPO usage) by 2015,” Oosterhuis added.
To encourage wider usage of CSPO, Oosterhuis said MVO had also urged the European Union (EU) to impose zero duty import tariffs on CSPO.
“We are striving for more free trade and better market access for CSPO in the EU.
“At the same time, we want to see Malaysia and Indonesia lowering their export taxes on CSPO,” he told StarBiz.
In November last year, Oosterhuis said MVO had set up a task force on sustainability palm oil which include an annual action plan and annual report to promote the CSPO in the Netherlands.
He said there was no need to have too many standards for sustainable palm oil in the world when “all the parties concerned can sit down and try to unify for the betterment of the industry.”
“Like any other new product in the market, it will take time for the Western consumers to fully embrace the CSPO but serious work is in progress (in the Western countries) to ensure the usage of the green premium oil,” added Oosterhuis.
On the proposed Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO), a leading Malaysian planter said Malaysia had made the right move not to hastily introduce the local sustainable palm oil standard.
“It will be a premature move to try to compete with the globally recognised RSPO certification now if the MSPO standard cannot match or perform better than the existing RSPO voluntary certification standard.”
He said MSPO would need to be credible, well implemented and practical across the entire local palm oil supply chain and well accepted particularly in niche markets globally.
More importantly, he added that the MSPO must be able to meet the expectations and stringent requirements of the major consuming nations in the EU as well as the big markets in China and India which were gradually demanding for certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
The MSPO which was speculated to be introduced during the recent MPOB International Palm Oil Congress 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, had to be put on hold as the local sustainable standard was still not up to mark when compared with the RSPO standards.
