InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA – Bilateral meeting which was followed up by palm oil industrial discussion between Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Commodity and Plantation, Malaysia, YAB Dato’ Sri Haji Fadillah bin Haji Yusof; and Coordinator Minister in Economy Indonesia, H.E. Airlangga Hartarto representing Board of Minister of Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) was held on 9 February 2023 at Hotel Mandarin Oriental, Jakarta.
In the meeting, the two ministers discussed some urgent issues about palm oil industries, proposed the same approach and the possibility to do coordination. Both ministers agreed to keep protecting palm oil sectors by empowering the cooperation and efforts to solve palm oil discrimination. In specific, the ministers discussed the regulation published by European Union about Free Deforestation Commodity.
The two ministers are concerned to the publication of the regulation for it would be significantly negative to palm oil exports in the globe and in other developing countries. The ministers agreed that the regulation is protective instrument that would raise costs for palm oil exporters and decrease their competitiveness to other vegetable oils in European Union. The ministers showed their disappointment to European Union which did not consult with business partners meaningfully.
In association with that, many strategies were discussed to actively acknowledge Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) in wider perspectives in the globe, including the benchmark and everything to the acknowledgment. “The meeting also discussed strategies to get more CPOPC members and it is agreed that Honduras would be the third member of CPOPC in this very short,” Airlangga said in a press conference that InfoSAWIT attended.
To escalate more about CPOPC visibility, the meeting agreed to intensify CPOPC involvement with United Nation’s parties. The ministers agreed to get more coordination between both governments to solve the lack of labors and to legalize foreign workers in these industries.
Responding to the latest political agreement about Free Deforestation Commodity in European Union, the meeting came to a conclusion to do the first same mission to European Union to communicate every unwanted consequence from the regulation in palm oil sectors namely the possibility of smallholders’ exception in palm oil supply chain, and get possible collaborative approach between related parties. The meeting agreed properness to get Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) as the strategic platform to vocalize the concerns in palm oil sectors.
“About European Union’s Free Deforestation Commodity, the meeting agreed to do the same mission to the continent to communicate and prevent unwanted consequences from the regulation and get possible collaborative approach among every stakeholder. CPOPC is about to involve in European Union and get the profitable results for consumers and producers’ countries,” Airlangga said.
The ministers also came to a conclusion that after the same mission to the continent, the visit would be to India to advantage some potential chances in the country. The visit is about to promote palm oil application after India acknowledged ISPO and MSPO through the same initiative in Indian Palm Oil Sustainability (IPOS) framework and the introduction and acceptance of Global Framework of Principles for CPOPC and Sustainable Palm Oil (GFP-SPO).
After the bilateral meeting the two ministers would participate in lunch and the industrial dialogue was attended by many stakeholder representatives from both countries. During the dialogue session, H.E. Airlangga Hartarto officially handed over CPOPC chairmanship to YAB Dato’ Sri Fadillah bin Hj Yusof because Malaysia would be the chairman in 2023.
The conclusion in the industrial dialogue was that every party including the government, private sector, and smallholder should unite to solve general issues that could disturb these industries for the goodness of palm oil producer countries. (T4)
