Jakarta – The labeling of many imported products with “Palm Oil Free” is purposely misleading and is only based on false claims which are not supported by scientific evidences, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahendra Siregar said on Wednesday.
“Those who label their packaged products with “Palm Oil Free” claim that the palm oil has damaged environment and harmful for health. But such claim is not based on scientific evidences,” Deputy Minister Siregar said when presenting his keynote speech during the virtual public discussion organized by #INAPalmOil on Wednesday, 16 September 2020.
He said that all accusations leveled against the palm oil have been proven wrong through a number of studies and scientific data. “In the past, the palm oil was claimed to be harmful to human health. But it was proven wrong through a number of studies conducted by national and international institutions. Apparently, such claim was deceiving the consumers,” said Mahendra.
He pointed out that later the palm oil was accused of causing deforestation and endangering biodiversity. But studies have concluded that palm oil is not the main cause of deforestation. The deforestation had been massive in Indonesia long before the robust growth of oil palm plantations in 1990s, which was mainly as a result of legal and illegal logging activities.
Studies have also concluded that palm oil is outcompeting other vegetable oils in terms of efficiency and versatility. Almost nine times higher in productivity, palm oil only needs less lands in producing one ton of oil as compared with other vegetable oils. That means replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils to meet the global rising need for vegetable oils will mean increasing deforestation across the globe to even worsening level.
Mahendra suspected that the false accusation is a new form of protectionism, which is aimed to protect certain top products of other countries. He cited as an unfair practice the fact that Indonesian products derived from forests are accused of causing deforestation despite of compliance to sustainability principles, while their products in Europe from forests are categorized as sustainably harvested crops.
“They should be fair in the market. If they want sustainability, all products, including their own should be subjected to the requirement of sustainability principles. We’re committed to complying with the sustainability principles as have been stipulated in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations (UN),” he said.
He added that all sides, not only the palm oil industrial players, should counter the black campaigns against the palm oil. We need to evaluate the negative campaigns thoroughly and ensure that our positive campaigns to counter the black campaigns are well formulated and effectively implemented,” he said. (Gapki/bst)
