MIRI: The federal Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry welcomes all forms of cooperation from Sarawak’s palm oil stakeholders in creating new markets at state, national and international levels, especially for local products with the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification.
In this regard, Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Council (MPOCC) chairman Muhtar Suhaili says the ministry is committed to and will continue providing the support to the stakeholders in Sarawak towards enhanced development of the nation’s palm oil industry.
Muhtar (front, centre), Ahmad Parveez (on his left) and Sugumari (front, third right) join other guests in a group photo at the Meritz Hotel in Miri.
“The ministry, via the MPOCC, is committed to providing technical advisory services that cover MSPO certification, information about the status of accredited certification bodies, the handling of complaints and issues pertaining to MSPO certification, as well as the development and operations of MSPO certification schemes – all for the good of the Malaysian palm oil industry and also the international palm oil industry,” he said in his opening speech for the ‘MPOCC with Sarawak Palm Oil Industry Stakeholders’ Dinner’ at Meritz Hotel here last Saturday, which also held a dialogue session.
On the status of MSPO certification in Sarawak, Muhtar said as at Sept 15 this year, the state had 1.71 million hectares of oil palm plantation areas – with 86.4 per cent of them being run by major operators, and the remaining 13.6 per cent being developed by smallholders.
On smallholding operations, he said a total of 17,785 individual smallholders managing 99,354.62 hectares of plantation areas took part in the Sustainable Palm Oil Group (SPOC) and had obtained MSPO certification.
He said other MSPO-certified operators were 583 oil palm entities or plantations under the estate category, 76 oil palm mills with capacity to process fresh fruit bunches (FFB) to crude palm oil (CPO) of 4,910 metric tonnes per hour under the palm oil mill category, as well as 59 entities comprising palm oil mills, refineries, oleo-chemical mills, biodiesel mills and oil palm kernel mills under the MSPO Supply Chain Certification Process (SCCS) certification category.
“The ministry greatly appreciates the efforts by the palm oil industry stakeholders in Sarawak, especially their initiative of obtaining and supporting MSPO certification.
“We also appreciate their commitment in overcoming the challenges of obtaining and fully supporting this certification,” said Muhtar.
He also said the MPOCC was confident that compliance with the MSPO certification scheme among all the relevant parties in the industry would grow stronger through the collaboration between the Malaysian
Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and the industry stakeholders in Sarawak.
Over 40 representatives of Sarawak palm oil industry attended the dinner.
MPOB director-general Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir, and Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities senior secretary (palm oil and sago industry development division) Dr Sugumari Shanmugam were also present.