JAKARTA – The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) stated that Indonesian palm oil commodity has complied with the principles of sustainability, which is reflected with the certification of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).
“Indonesia’s ISPO meets the sustainability requirements,” CPOPC Secretary General Rizal Affandi Lukman said in Jakarta on Saturday (4/5/2024).
Addressing a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Indonesia’s palm oil regulation, Rizal said the palm oil producers will be continually pushed to get ISPO certification as they are required to comply with sustainability principles as stipulated by the European Union (EU) Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR).
According to him, it is necessary for palm oil producers to get the ISPO certification to prove the sustainability of their palm oil as a requirement to enter the EU market.
In 2023, Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s largest exporters of palm oil, with each of them exporting respectively 28.6 million tons (56%) and 15.1 million tons (29.6%).
According to Rizal, despite export to EU market is not large in volume, but it has a significant impact to the smallholders, who will find it difficult to comply with the EUDR regulation. The EUDR also applies a system of benchmarking, which categorizes producing countries based on high risk, medium risk and low risk.
“In this case, we’ll ensure that the smallholders are not left behind. We’ll ask the EU to accommodate the interest of smallholders,” he said.
Meanwhile, ISPO Strengthening and Implementation Team Head Rismansyah Danasaputra said that Indonesia realizes that the sustainability is a must for palm oil, and it is not due to global pressures.
“Our ISPO certification has become a valuable guidance to improve the competitiveness of palm oil at national, regional and global levels,” he said.
He said in 2022 Indonesia’s palm oil exports were mainly destined to China at 16.72 percent, followed by India at 11.13 percent, and the USA at 6.07 percent, while to countries of EU at 12.7 percent.
The Head of Corporate Division at the Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Board (BPDPKS), Achmad Maulizal Sutawijaya also underlined the importance of ISPO certification to prove that Indonesian palm oil is produced based on the principles of sustainability.
Currently, he said, there are around 2.4 million independent smallholders, who employ around 4.6 million workers in their plantations. “That means the EUDR implementation will affect millions of smallholders and workers in Indonesia,” he said.
He said that besides implementing the ISPO certification, positive campaigns should be also intensified to promote the palm oil and counter the negative campaigns against the palm oil, especially in European countries which have discriminated against the palm oil.
“We’ve prepared positive campaigns in EU. This is especially to counter the negative campaigns in European countries and other countries which still denigrate palm oil,” he said. (*)
Source: REPUBLIKA.CO.ID
