Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau said during his closing address at the 16th Annual Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil Conference today, the state is committed to having more palm oil produce to achieve both the Roundtable of the Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the local Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO), concurrently.
In 2017, Sabah produced more than 5.2 million metric tons (MT) of crude palm oil (CPO) accounting for more than 30% of total Malaysian palm oil produced.
Between January and October this year, Sabah produced some 1.55 million MT of CPO of which 28% were certified.
About 400,000ha of plantations are RSPO certified, of which 3,960ha belonged to smallholders. Sabah has some 623 small players.
“Therefore Sabah can play an important role in the sustainable palm oil industry. Sabah is one of the largest producer of RSPO certified palm oil,” said Tangau.
On assisting smallholders in the state, he said while incentives such as grants for planting comes from the federal government, land titles fall under the state government’s purview.
On the government’s move to make MSPO certification mandatory by end of 2019, Tangau welcomed the move.
“We will assist in whatever (way) we can. I’m happy the federal government is spending money to do that, but whether we achieve that target, is another story,” he added.
Sabah saw an economic growth of 8% last year and palm oil has played a part in it. Tangau said one of the biggest challenge in this country is the high dependence on foreign labour as it is difficult to get locals to work in plantations.
The state government is also looking towards stepping up downstream activities instead of just being active exporters of CPO.
On another note, RSPO co-chairman Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen said the challenge lies on bridging the gap between supply and demand of sustainable palm oil as the uptake for certified palm oil globally stood only at 65%.
“This is as disappointing as wet gunpowder and it sends a discouraging, hypocritical message of “do as I say but not as I do. And I will be clear, the growers expect action and whilst the grower fraternity has just shown a willingness to change, to innovate, to now halt deforestation, to now stop any new plantings on peat soils, they also expect that the NGOs, CGM, retailers alike, including the Secretariat of RSPO now direct just as much attention and energy towards improving uptake and not just pursuing higher standards for the growers,” he said in his closing remark.