PALMOILMAGAZINE, MAMUJU – At the ISPO workshop conducted by Apkasindo and Apkasindo of West Sulawesi, with the support of the Palm Oil Plantation Fund Management Agency, several recommendations were put forward. These recommendations are intended to address the importance of ISPO (Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil) in the palm oil industry in Indonesia.
The members of Apkasindo highlighted that ISPO should not only be mandatory in the upstream sector, which includes palm oil plantations and mills but also in the downstream sector that involves the production of crude palm oil (CPO) and its derived products.
The aim of this proposal is likely to ensure that sustainability standards and practices are followed throughout the entire palm oil supply chain, including processing and manufacturing stages. By making ISPO obligatory for downstream products, it will help to uphold sustainable practices, environmental protection, and social responsibility throughout the entire production process.
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The recommendations discussed in the workshop will be submitted to the Coordinator Ministry in the Economy, suggesting that the government takes these proposals into consideration for possible implementation. This move would be significant in further promoting sustainable palm oil practices in Indonesia, a country with a significant role in the global palm oil industry.
The workshop on Friday (21/7/2023) discussed the future of smallholders after 2025 when ISPO is the obligation for many sectors (in palm oil). The question remains, how the would the smallholders implement ISPO with their limits, particularly in Mamuju, West Sulawesi Province?
“It should not multiply the regulations but focus on the main problems heading to ISPO,” the participants of the workshop noted on the questionnaire that the workshop committee shared because of the government’s plan to expand ISPO implementation that covers downstream sectors.
Agustina Palimbong from Plantation Agency West Sulawesi Province said, of 16 unions in the province, 6 companies as the members of Indonesian Palm Oil Association (IPOA), got ISPO certificate. But not one smallholders’ group got ISPO certificate.
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Agustina also said, the government just facilitates how to get Cultivation Document still, about 19% of 158 villages or just reached 30 villages only. While the smallholders’ palm oil plantations in the province laid about 108.443,56 ha and the corporates’ ones laid about 73.578 ha.
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“That is why Plantation Agency West Sulawesi Province welcomes ISPO workshop because the main issue to get ISPO is in the smallholders’ groups (institutions). They are more dominant (60%) than the corporates,” she said.
Meanwhile Chairman of Apkasindo, Gulat Medali Emas Manurung told the smallholders are still limped to implement ISPO. But there would be new coverage about ISPO.
“I know ISPO certificate would always be issue for smallholders. This frightens us. We would like to say to Coordinator Minister in Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, we are not ready that ISPO is mandatory for smallholders. We told that years ago when ISPO was in ISPO draft still. But the consultant that formulated it did not care. Now what we are afraid of, happens,” he said.
For information, he continued, since 2011, the smallholders that got ISPO certificate by October 2022 just laid 20.910,47 hectares or 0,31% of the total plantations that the smallholders cultivated (6,72 juta hectares).
While the corporates that got ISPO certificate laid 3.663.221,96 hectares or 37,92% of the total plantations that the corporate cultivated. Since 2011 palm oil plantations (16,38 million hectares) that got ISPO certificate, just reached 22,49%.
“If the numbers are minimum still, particularly for the smallholders, it needs to evaluate what the smallholders face, not make new coverage (regulation),” Manurung said. (T2)
