Palm oil has made a great sacrifice and should be duly recognised instead of having its exports curtailed, according to Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron.
He said the fact that Malaysia has kept its permanent forest for biodiversity and not opening new areas for oil palm cultivation had caused the country to forgo the revenue it could generate from the commodity.
In stating his views during the Forum on Sustainability of Palm Oil here yesterday, Yusof said Malaysia had pledged under the Rio Summit to commit over 50 per cent of its land under forest, the balance to agriculture and industrial purposes.
“If 22 per cent of the agriculture portion are tree crops, then 77 per cent of Malaysia is under tree cover, therefore the country is a net carbon sink,” he said.
“We are also able to brief the world that we have enough forest to provide biodiversity. By maintaining this, we had 33 per cent less revenue that we had to forgo. So this is a great sacrifice that should be recognised,” he added.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad, in giving his views during the forum, contended that much of the land for oil palm cultivation came not from the clearing of permanent forest but as a result of the conversion from rubber plantations.
For the future, Sabri said, the sustainable industry was looking at increasing its tonnage following the scarcity of land.
He said the industry has 410 palm oil mills which have been emitting methane and out of these, 40 have the process to trap methane to drive energy while another 70 are in various stages of planning.
Unlike the western growers, palm oil is not subsidised and had incurred further cost as the industry is committed towards sustainable production by adhering to the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standards, Sabri said.
“We learnt of the German Ordinance that would create another certification and add more cost. We hope they would reconsider the imposition of additional certification as we are already committed under the RSPO,” he said.
From Siti Hawa Othman
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