KUCHING: Sarawak’s oil palm industry will be adversely affected by Wilmar International’s recent declaration of “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” policy, which would affect suppliers of crude palm oil (CPO) to its refinery in Bintulu if they failed to comply with the policy by December-2015.
Wilmar, Asia’s leading agri-business group, owns Bintulu Edible Oil plant, which buys some 1.7 million tonnes of CPO annually. The plant manufactures palm olein oil, palm fatty acid and palm stearin.
Sarawak Oil Palm Planter Owners Association (Soppoa) said it was deeply disappointed with Wilmar’s unilateral action in coming up with the declaration which, it said, was discriminatory and detrimental to the state’s oil palm development.
“Wilmar stated that it would immediately cease to do business with suppliers who do not take immediate action in compliance with the policy, which include, among others, no new planting (of oil pam) in peat areas regardless of depth and no planting in High Carbon Stock (HCS) and High Conservation Value (HCV) forest areas,” the association said in a press statement.
It said under the conditions set by Wilmar, only young scrub and cleared open land with mostly grass and non-woody plants were eligible to be planted. It said as there were no scrub or grassland areas in Sarawak, that would mean that development of oil palm would have to cease immediately to comply with the policy.
“Wilmar’s policy will have a major impact on the oil palm industry here given the high volume of CPO it purchased in Sarawak.”
The association urged the state and Federal government to view the matter urgently.
“Soppoa also calls on Malaysian Pam Oil Association and other members of the industry in the country to be united to jointly oppose (Wilmar) declaration.”
Taken from The Star
