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RSPO Seeks to Certify Indonesian Crude Palm Oil
Ririn Radiawati Kusuma | November 23, 2011

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil aims to certify 3 million tons of Indonesian crude palm oil as sustainable, up 50 percent from this year’s original target of 2 million. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta) The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil aims to certify 3 million tons of Indonesian crude palm oil as sustainable, up 50 percent from this year’s original target of 2 million. (Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)
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Wakx
2:51pm Nov 26, 2011

Totally agree MCBon!


MCBon
8:24am Nov 24, 2011

the board of directors currently consists of no Indonesian representatives only because the last Indonesian representatives, GAPKI, withdrew from their position on the executive board last month,as the article states.Gapki was a long standing member of the EB,until they recently abandoned ship to 'start' their 'ispo' alternative to rspo.typical bad attempt at misleading the public!

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The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil aims to certify 3 million tons of Indonesian crude palm oil as sustainable, up 50 percent from this year’s original target of 2 million.

“We keep working to get more CPO producers to certify their products,” said Desi Kusumadewi, the RSPO director for Indonesia at the roundtable’s ninth conference in Sabah, Malaysia.

Currently, 49 Indonesian CPO producers are members of RSPO, most of them large companies.

Green campaigners say palm plantations are some of the biggest threats to the sustainability of rainforests in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, which produce 85 percent of the world’s supply of the commodity. Swathes of virgin forest are often cleared to make way for palm plantations.

A producer’s CPO can be certified if it can demonstrate that the production process does not cause undue harm to the environment or society.

Worldwide demand for CPO is around 45 million tons, with the biggest markets in India, China and Europe. RSPO data shows that certified sustainable CPO accounts for only 5.2 million tons — slightly more than 10 percent of total production.

Desi said Malaysia had more certified CPO products, with three million verified in Europe and the United States last year.

However, she believes that as awareness of certification spreads among buyers and gains currency as a brand, especially in the developed markets, more producers from Indonesia will see the wisdom of joining.

“With certification, [producers] can actually tap more markets,” Desi said.

RSPO, which was established in 2004, now has 722 members from 50 countries all over the world, among them buyers, NGOs, lenders, retailers and producers. The latest big buyer to join is McDonald’s Corp., the US fast-food giant.

Indonesia’s Palm Oil Association (Gapki) in October withdrew its membership from RSPO, saying it would focus on helping to develop the government-backed sustainability scheme.

However, an unnamed representative of Indonesian producers said RSPO did not represent firms from Indonesia and Malaysia as the biggest producers of the commodity: “Look at the board of directors, none of them are from Indonesia. So what’s their interest?”