KAMPAR: More than 300 oil palm smallholders in Perak were awarded sustainability certification after months of hard work to comply with the requirements to be globally recognised as sustainable palm oil producers. Yesterday, 335 independent smallholders who voluntarily participated in the Wild Asia Group Scheme (WAGS) became the first group of smallholders to receive both the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) and Roundtable Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certifications. In turn, WAGS is a strategy to include and support small producers in the global market by working with global palm oil suppliers to solve problems associated with the opacity of the palm oil supply chain, and to reduce the environmental and social risks for the global users of palm oil. The certifications and special awards to recognise outstanding farmers were handed out by Deputy Primary Industries Minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin in the presence of the Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council chief executive officer Chew Jit Seng, Malaysian Palm Oil Board director-general Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir, and stakeholders from RSPO Malaysia and Cargill Malaysia, a major purchaser of sustainably produced palm oil. “And even then, a majority of these MSPO-compliant smallholders are beneficiaries of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s Sustainable Palm Oil Cluster scheme, ” said Shamsul in underscoring the urgency for various stakeholders to step up the pace of MSPO adoption.

Source: The Star November 03, 2019 00:56 UTC