Certified Sustainable Palm Oil use increases 49% on last year

13-May-2014 - Last updated on 13-May-2014 at 16:13 GMT

The uptake of certified sustainable palm oil has seen a 49% increase in the first quarter of 2014 compared to last year which many believe is a positive landmark for the industry that has been threatening to destroy rainforests in Indonesia and around the world.

Palm oil and its derivatives are present in about 70% of cosmetic products and are obtained from the flesh of the fruit of African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and palm kernel oil is obtained by pressing oil from the kernel, or seed, of the fruit.

The high demand for palm oil from a whole host of industries including cosmetics, is fuelling unsustainable growth of the palm industry, so it is important for companies to adopt a sustainable development strategy.

Record high

According to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) sales of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil for the first quarter ending March 31, 2014 has hit a new high, with a 49% increase for physical uptake of RSPO CSPO and a 54% increase for GreenPalm Certificates, compared with the same quarter in 2013.

The latest data shows sales of Physical CSPO reported in the eTrace system through Identity Preserved (IP), Segregated (SG) and Mass Balance (MB) supply chains have increased to 506,586 Metric Tonnes compared with 340,668 MT in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, GreenPalm Certificates clocked in sales of 853,338 MT for the first quarter of the year, and trading during the month of March has also resulted in a record of total premiums back to RSPO certified growers of US$6.6 million.

"The recent months have seen many more companies committing towards 100% RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO), most of them with a 2015 deadline,” says RSPO Technical Director Salahudin Yaacob.

“We are happy to see these commitments – mainly from large European Retailers and Consumer Goods Companies) reflecting in real terms on the demand for CSPO".

Certificates

GreenPalm's General Manager, Bob Norman, comments that this record trade marks an important landmark for the organisation and affirms the program's role as a facilitator for change within the palm oil industry.

“This is particularly important for independent smallholders, who rarely have direct access to large multinational buyers committed to sustainable palm oil, selling instead to their local mill,” he says.