BALI: Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association or Gabungan Pengusaha Kelapa Sawit Indonesia (Gapki) looks to the harmonisation of palm oil certifications with Malaysia, following the establishment of the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC).
“Instead of competing against each other in the international market, it's good to see that both Malaysia and Indonesia are moving towards win-win collaborations,” said Gapki executive director Fadhil Hasan.
He was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference (IPOC) 2015 here today.
“In the interest of maintaining country sovereignty, the governments of Indonesia and Malaysia chose to harmonise the principles and criteria used for their respective certification of sustainable palm oil,” Fadhil said.
Last week, at the Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Indonesia President Joko Widodo announced each country will contribute an initial US$5 million to kickstart CPOPC’s operations.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the world's top two producers supplying some 50 million tonnes of palm oil per year. In view of this, the establishment of CPOPC is timely.
Yesterday, Indonesia Vice President Muhammad Jusuf Kalla in addressing an international business gathering of 1,200 at the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference (IPOC) 2015,
announced Indonesia will be restoring damaged forest and peatland ecosystem.
Jusuf announced the government is setting aside Rp50 trillion, for the next five years, to lay the groundwork for rehabilitation. The first phase of restoration will cover two million hectares of forest and peatland.
Fadhil acknowledged Jusuf’s remarks that the allocation is equivalent to the annual tax contributed by plantation companies to the government.
In preparation for climate change talks beginning November 30 in Paris, Indonesia and Malaysia will highlight CPOPC’s long term plans in tackling the region’s haze problem. This will include better dissemination of facts and figures of oil palm planting on peat soil.
CPOPC membership, under government-to- government framework, is open to all oil palm cultivating countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Uganda.
In a separate interview, Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia (Poram) chief executive officer Mohammad Jaaffar Ahmad extends refiners’ aspirations of win-win collaborations with Indonesia's palm oil downstream investors.
Jaaffar, in presenting his paper at IPOC 2015, noted both countries should be more cooperative in value-adding the global palm oil supply chain.
“We hope governments will work on palm oil export tax structures that are mutually beneficial to each other country's competitiveness," he said.