BELITUNG – Foreign ambassadors and representatives from nine countries in America and Europe made a visit recently to the oil palm plantations in Belitung island, Bangka-Belitung province. The aim of their visit was to see the sustainability of palm oil produced in the region.
The foreign ministry’s America and Europe Intra-Regional and Inter-Regional Cooperation Director Nidya Kartikasari said that the visit was part of the “Dialogue on Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil in American and European Markets”, which was organized by the foreign ministry’s directorate general of multilateral cooperation and the directorate general of America and Europe in Belitung on 23-25 November 2022. The international event is expected to improve the global accessibility of Indonesian palm oil and help expand the foreign market for Indonesia’s sustainable palm oil products.
“Through the visit, the foreign representatives are expected to get more detailed information regarding the implementation of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) in the oil palm plantations and its impacts to the economic and social development, and the environment. The ISPO certification will open more chances to expand the foreign markets for the sustainable palm oil products of Indonesia, especially in non-traditional markets,” Nidya said.
During their visit in Belitung, the nine foreign representatives, consisting of Frank Leon L. Felix (Belgium’s Ambassador to Indonesia), Rut Kruger Giverin (Norway’s Ambassador to Indonesia) and Gustavo Ayares (Chile’s Ambassador to Indonesia) and other senior diplomats from Peru, Switzerland, Czech, Mexico, Britain and Colombia, visited the oil palm plantations of PT Sahabat Mewah & Makmur (SMM), a subsidiary of PT Austindo Nusantara Jaya Tbk (ANJ) on Thursday, 24 November 2022.
“Vegetable oils like palm oil play an important role in realizing the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The implementation of sustainability in oil palm plantations has proven that the palm oil industry has given significant contribution economically, socially and environmentally to the public, especially the local people,” Nidya Kartikasari said in a press release received by InfoSAWIT, recently.
Juli Wankara Purba, President Director of SMM said that the foreign diplomats visited the locations of agronomic best practices applied by SMM, which have been certified with ISPO. They dialogued with the oil palm smallholders and other local people. They also visited its power plant which is generated with biogas and other renewable energy sources operated by PT Austindo Aufwind New Energy (AANE), a subsidiary of ANJ Group.
The foreign ministry’s Commodity Trading and Intellectual Property Director Antonius Tri Yudiantoro said during the visit in Dendang, Belitung Timur recently that the visit was aimed to show to the world that the production of palm oil in Indonesia has been based on the principles of sustainability, which has been implemented through the certification of ISPO.
“Very often at the international market, especially in Europe and America, the palm oil products of Indonesia are accused of being not sustainable and unfriendly to the environment. They also accused the Indonesian producers of palm oil to have committed human rights violations. But the reality in our oil palm plantations has proven that such accusations are wrong and absolutely unfounded,” he said. (*)
Source: Infosawit/ANTARA
