PALMOILMAGAZINE, KUALA LUMPUR – Commencing on January 1, 2025, Malaysia is poised for significant transformations within its palm oil industry as it embraces the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) revision, introduced in March of the previous year.
This marks a pivotal decision in the pursuit of sustainability and the augmentation of income for smallholders who rely heavily on the palm oil sector in the nation.
Datuk Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir, the General Director of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, has announced that all palm oil producers, including smallholders, will be granted an 18-month transition period for the implementation and adherence to the MSPO 2022 standards.
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Smallholders occupy a central role in this industry, contributing significantly to the nation’s economy. In the first quarter of 2023, they accounted for 3.0 percent of the gross domestic product. Moreover, their export values amounted to approximately RM 137.89 billion in 2022.
As quoted from Business Time, in the industries that involve almost 28 percent of total regions in the country, about 500 thousand smallholders independently work or developed by federal state. Ahmad Parveez also mentioned it needs to reinforce their roles within double focuses: to sustainably escalate their plantation productivity and actively encourage them in downstream sectors.
Knowledge is a serious issue for smallholders’ plantations and capability to qualify standards of sustainability which are needed. Their limited resource made them difficult to sold their production. That is why the implementation of new traceability system is the initiative key to reinforce their plantation production. The main goal is to escalate their income and welfare them in a whole.
MPOB had launched some initiatives to support smallholders to realize MSPO standards, such as, effectiveness in sustainable palm oil cluster management. The goal is to confirm that they obey MSPO certificate and would implement and reinforce good agricultural practices, deliver knowledge and skill needed to realize the standards.
One other significant initiative is to empower smallholders to get premium export chance by obeying European Union regulation (standards). MSPO Supply Chain Certification Standard (SCCS) would cover production management and traceability in every supply chain, confirm that every palm oil material would derive from the plantations which are sustainably cultivated.
Ahmad Parveez said that though big companies play big roles on smallholders’ plantation production, the smallholders are in susceptible position. (T2)
