KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Indonesia will meet with their European counterparts in May to explain the standards and practices of the palm oil industry.
Deputy Prime Minister and Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said he will be working closely with Indonesia's coordinating minister for economic affairs, Airlangga Hartarto.
"We will have a session with them to explain what are the practices in Malaysia and Indonesia, the standards we have developed, to what extent our compliances are and what else we can do so that we can meet at the middle ground.
"It will be a win-win for the world as everybody is looking into the aspects of environment and human rights, and so is Malaysia.
"Most importantly, (we will look at) how we can we come to a middle ground which is acceptable by international standards. At the same time, we will improve our practices and we are committed to ensuring we comply with it," he said after launching the People Positive Palm (P3) First Learning Series Workshop, here.
Fadillah said it was vital to engage with international communities, consultants, industry players and governments on Malaysia's own practices to strike a balance between local and international standards and practices.
He said an example was the international perception of the local tradition of allowing young children to follow their parents to plantations to help out during the school holidays.
"It is important for us to engage them on whatever we do because we cannot judge (practices) based on one standard and it varies from one country to another because of our different backgrounds and cultures; as well as the way we educate people.
"For example, the conservative or traditional way of working in plantations or small estates (smallholders), they will get the whole family to take part in the whole process.
"So, we must acknowledge that but at the same time we must also recognise the international standards because we are exporting our goods, products and services.
"So, it has to also be in compliance with expectations of people buying our products or services; as well as human rights, environment and safety perspectives," he added.
One of the issues the Western world has with palm oil is that some organisations have claimed that plantations are bad for the environment and wild animals as large areas of forests are cleared. This is despite Malaysia and Indonesia repeatedly stating that oil palm plantations are created and run in a sustainable fashion.
The other big issue that comes up every now and then is purported child labour. Rights organisations have claimed there are children working the plantations.