KUCHING: The Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) has expressed total commitment to adopting the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standard for the oil palm industry in Malaysia.
The association said its members had agreed to the compliance and certification by MSPO at its recent annual general meeting on March 27.
The MSPO, expected to be officially launched this year, is the benchmark for the industry for responsible and sustainable development of the palm oil industry in the country.
Soppoa said as explained by Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chief executive officer on March 18 and fully endorsed by Soppoa, threat of unilateral banning of palm oil from forest or peat areas by environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) was without scientific basis and discriminatory to producers from Malaysia, in particular Sarawak.
Caring For Oil Palm Seedlings: Oil palm seedlings are grown in poly-bags in the nursery.
“Firstly, there is currently no international or United Nation framework that supports a no deforestation policy.
“Secondly, denying development of agriculture practices infringes on the sovereign rights of states to utilise their own land and condemning them to perpetual poverty.
“Thirdly, such action will jeopardise world food production where demand is growing and fourthly, it is discriminatory as other competitive food commodities to palm oil are not subjected to similar conditions for production,” it stressed in a statement yesterday.
Given the scenario, Soppoa said denying access of Malaysian palm oil to international markets was totally unjustifiable and discriminatory towards producers from Malaysia who had been practicing sustainable policies.
Hence, the association viewed the adoption of MSPO as another assurance for international markets for palm oil from Malaysia.
Soppoa also voiced its strong supports of the government’s initiative to continue developing oil palm plantation in Sarawak with the objectives of eradicating poverty in rural areas, hence improving the livelihood of rural communities.
It noted that currently, smallholders in Sarawak numbering over 18,000 involving over 300,000 people, were being considered for assistance by the Government to enable them to be certified under MSPO.
In this way, all planters in the state and nation could be certified under MSPO which is Malaysia’s assurance of sustainably produced palm oil for the world.
Towards this development, Soppoa said the Government had allocated funds to help educate and assist the smallholders to be certified under the MSPO and adopt Best Management Practices in the oil palm industry.
This showed the commitment of the Government for the industry and also its people, it added.
Taken from The Star
