KUALA LUMPUR: FELDA, which harbours the largest population of oil palm smallholders in Malaysia, fully condemns the discriminatory act by the European Union (EU) to ban palm oil from entering its market.
This year, the EU Parliament has passed two resolutions – to impose a single certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) scheme for Europe-bound palm oil exports after 2020 and to phase out palm oil from the EU biofuel programme by 2020.
The resolutions were passed on claims that palm oil producers have failed to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which includes responsible consumption, production and climate action. Shahrir points out that: “There are no more deforestation for the purpose of opening up new oil palm plantations with many ongoing programmes to protect and rehabilitate the habitats such as orang hutans in Sabah and Sarawak. “Our government is also fully committed to maintain more than 50% of the country’s forest reserves.”
Another United Nations SDG effort by Malaysia is to make it mandatory for all its oil palm smallholders nationwide to be certified under the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) by 2020.
Hence, it is rather disappointing for Malaysia that the EU Parliament failed to recognise Malaysia’s efforts towards producing certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) for the global market.
On the plight of Felda’s over 112,000 smallholders likely to be affected by the EU action, Shahrir says: “The income of our smallholders is heavily dependent on significant contribution by oil palm cultivation from planting to selling palm fruits.” In fact, the smallholders’ income derived from oil palm crop is more than double compared with rubber crop. According to Felda’s Annual Report 2016, the average smallholder’s income for oil palm is around RM3,173 per month from RM1,499 per month from rubber.
“This supports the importance of palm oil contribution to elevate smallholders from the poverty level as the selling price of palm fruits is higher than other crops which they have planted before.” .
Another point highlighted by Shahrir is on Malaysia’s certified timber exports to the EU, which is well accepted for its good forest management practices.
