PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – The Coordinator Ministry in Economy has reported that as of December 6, 2023, the number of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certificates has reached 819. However, only 107 certificates have been issued for smallholders’ plantations, covering approximately 426,000 hectares.
This reality has prompted the government to take various actions, including the consideration of new regulations aimed at providing financial assistance to facilitate smallholders in obtaining ISPO certification.
The proposed financial assistance would be allocated for various purposes, including obtaining plantation cultivation documents, documents demonstrating the capability to manage and supervise the environment, implementing internal control systems, and undergoing certification and/or review processes.
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Airlangga Hartarto, the Coordinator Minister in Economy, highlighted that the team from the Indonesian Oil Palm Smallholders Association (Asosiasi Petani Kelapa Sawit Indonesia or Apkasindo) is tasked with addressing issues related to data verification, ‘too late’ plantations, and ISPO certification within a one-month timeframe.
He also told every meeting material is solved and the output should be concrete to escalate smallholders’ welfare, involve about 800 thousand hectares and 300 thousand smallholders.
What Palmoilmagazine.com knew, new ISPO draft is in public consultation to get inputs and suggestion from smallholders, people, and organizations to be improved.
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Deputy Assistant Team in Food and Agribusiness Coordination Coordinator Ministry in Economy, Ermanto Fahamsyah said, the new ISPO would regulate three main sectors in palm oil industries. The first, it regulates certification in upstream (plantation) sector; the second, it regulates downstream sectors; and the third, it regulates bioenergy sector.
The three would have something to do with every actor in each sector and should implement ISPO principles and criteria. Ermanto continued the detail of the regulation would not be clearly written in ISPO president’s regulation. “The president’s regulation would not drastically be substituted. It would be much the same with the previous one but there would be two additional chapters for other sectors, they are, downstream and bioenergy,” he said to Palmoilmagazine.com. (T2)
