PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – To promote and expedite the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) scheme while addressing certification needs in the downstream sectors, the government has initiated revisions to President’s Regulation (PR) Number 44/2020, which pertains to the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) Certification System.
The proposed revisions to the ISPO PR are currently undergoing a public consultation process, aimed at gathering responses and input from the public to further refine the regulations.
Ermanto Fahamsyah, a member of the Assistant Team in the Deputy for Food and Agribusiness Coordination at the Ministry of Economy, explained that the updated ISPO framework will encompass three primary sectors within the palm oil industry. These sectors include the certification regulations for the upstream sector (plantations), the downstream sector (derivative industries), and the bioenergy sector.
The three sectors in palm oil would be regulated and every actor in each sector should implement ISPO principles and criteria.
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Ermanto continued, there is no written regulation in detail in the PR. “The regulation would not drastically be substituted. It would be the same as the previous but there would be two new regulation for other sectors, they are, downstream and bioenergy sectors,” he said to Palmoilmagazine.com, Monday (25/9/2023).
He also mentioned, the detail of the policy would have implementation regulation according to the ministry in charge, for instance, in upstream or plantation sector, there would be regulation of minister of agriculture; in downstream sectors, there would be regulation of minister of industry. In bio energy, there would be regulation of minister of energy and mineral resource.
“It needs to notice that new ISPO would be a mandatory,” Ermanto said.
There is no certain period to implement the new ISPO but it is hoped, he continued, it would be published on 10 November 2023, as same as the commemoration of Hero’s Day but the decision to publish it would see the condition and preparedness of the regulation itself.
The important things in the policy are about to mandate and reinforce ISPO committee to accelerate ISPO process, deliver space for smallholders to get ISPO preparation.
He continued the smallholders would get 4 (four) years to implement ISPO scheme after ISPO has been published. This is the obligation. “One thing to know is that after the new ISPO is published, as it is regulated, two years after that, it should run. Then four years after it was published, the smallholders would have enough time to implement it,” Ermanto said. (T2)
