BUSINESS

PALM OIL: FUTURE DEMAND WILL INCREASE GLOBALLY, SAYS CPOPC

12/08/2020 06:41 PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 -- The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) remains optimistic about the future of palm oil despite the current COVID-19 threat.

“COVID-19 won’t bring negative impact on palm oil production, and the future demand for palm oil will keep increasing globally,” said its executive director Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron in his closing remarks at the ‘Smallholder Outreach Programme” (SOP) hosted by the CPOPC Secretariat.

Forty-two representatives of smallholders associations from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand and Papua New Guinea participated in the teleconference.

The SOP serves as a platform for smallholders from several palm oil producing countries that joined CPOPC’s network to discuss relevant issues and challenges in capacity building related to prosperity and sustainable environment.  

The discussion raised a willingness among the participants to establish a global communication network among smallholders of palm oil producing countries in achieving a wider sustainable global framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

“The cooperation and dialogue among the smallholders are very important. Someday the smallholders will be seen as the heroes who provide food to the world,” said Yusof.

He was also convinced that the programme would be advantageous to the smallholders, saying, the platform would continuously maintain the dialogue and discussion among the smallholders at international level.

Meanwhile, a number of issues were discussed during the teleconference including challenges on cultivation, mandatory sustainability certifications, and negative and black campaigns against palm oil.

Indonesia’s representative Djono Burhan said smallholders and CPOPC could be a great team to tackle negative campaign.

“If there is no palm oil, then there will be no SDGs,” he said.

Adzmi Hassan from Malaysia said smallholders depended highly on palm oil as their livelihood.

“CPOPC should ensure that the price among the member countries is around the same, as they will use the same standard (either MSPO or ISPO),” he said.

Chennu Rohith from India shared that smallholders in his country have found a solution to their challenges in regard to harvesting

“There was a problem in finding skilled manpower to harvest the palm oil, so we are empowering and training the local youth,” he said.

The participants expressed hope that the associations and CPOPC would focus on tackling the issue of price stabilisation which they lamented was beyond their capacity to settle.

In response, Yusof assured that the CPOPC would support every effort to resolve the problems faced by palm oil producing countries, such as price difference.

The secretariat has set a further plan to engage smallholders from the regions of Africa and Central and Latin America separately.

Its main intention is to map the challenges, expectations, and possible solutions to improve the capacity of smallholders in attaining the SDGs by 2030.

-- BERNAMA


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