PALMOILMAGAZINE, JAKARTA – Arief Poyuono, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of the Indonesian Palm Oil Smallholders Association (APPKSI), stated that palm oil mills without their own plantations are causing significant issues within the palm oil industry. He believes that such mills, lacking partnerships with plantations, compromise the traceability of palm oil supplied to them.
“This situation not only deprives smallholders of profits but also results in significant losses for plasma smallholders. Mills without plantations create opportunities for the theft of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from plasma smallholders,” Arief saidin the press conference that Palmoilmagazine.com got, Tuesday (2/7/2024).
APPKSI also urged the government to firmly deliver sanction for the mills without main plantations. He hoped, the government should review the operational permits of mills without main plantations, and event close the operation if they are proven breaking the regulation.
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“The operation of such mills managed issues for the mills in partnership (with plasma smallholders) because such mills would purchase FFB from plasma smallholders and others without qualifying terms and conditions of materials – minimally 20% of their own plantations, as it is regulated in ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil) and EUDR (European Union Delegated Regulation),” Arief said.
Besides, he also said about the ‘seeds’ mills that operate next to the existing mill. This would make people ‘transfer’ their FFB and seeds to the ‘seeds’ mill. This eventually has something to do with crude palm oil (CPO) production and smallholders’ FFB price.
“The ‘seeds’ mills would produce CPO in highly acids. This would be taken as the waste, not the main product. This would decrease CPO production in a whole and raise new issues in the future,” he said.
Legal observer of Universitas Andalas, Agung Hermansyah emphasized that it would be significant for the government to firmly sue the mills without palm oil plantations because this would open the chance to make FFB stealing. “There is misunderstanding about regulation, such as, partnership about main – plasma. The company provides mill but the plantations belong to the people (smallholders),” Agung said. (T2)
