Will planters ease differences?

Will planters ease differences?

Indonesian and Malaysian oil palm growers are meeting in Kuching, Sarawak, today to come out with strategies which they hope can counter their critics’ arguments.

Disgruntled oil palm growers in Indonesia are meeting up with some of their Malaysian counterparts in Kuching, Sarawak, today to put together strategies which they hope can counter their critics’ arguments. Environment impact, carbon emissions, biodiversity, land use rights are but some of the issues. There have been several hints of a new or alternative certification for their golden produce.

This is to counter the “criteria-heavy” certification process they are subjected to under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) principles and criteria in order to ship to Europe. The stringent demands from the European Union (EU) have burdened Indonesia and Malaysia, which make up over 85 per cent of world production.

The Indonesians are more vehement in this regard and, last week, its director-general of plantation crops at its agriculture ministry, Achmad Manggabarani, spoke of plans (by the government) to issue Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification to cover production from field to factory. And, he expects it to be out this year. One cannot blame them, considering that only three out of 11 Indonesian growers have received the RSPO certification to date.

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