Smallholders write to Bricq over campaign against palm oil By REGINA LEE regina@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian oil palm smallholders have written to the French foreign trade minister, asking for her commitment that France will not discriminate against palm oil.

The National Association of Smallholders president, Datuk Aliasak Ambia, wrote tominister Nicole Bricq, explaining his concern on the ongoing campaign in France to denounce palm oil.

“Palm oil is of vital importance to these small farmers, their families and local communities throughout Malaysia.

“The ongoing campaign by certain French companies and politicians to denigrate palm oil with untrue statements and actions is of major concern to Malaysia,” he wrote in a letter dated yesterday.

The letter claimed that corporations including Casino, Systeme U, Findus, Lesieur, Lays and Jacquet are running a campaign against palm oil that includes derogatory labelling which unfairly targets palm oil.

“We ask you to join us in calling for these French multinational companies to stop targeting palm oil,” said Aliasak, whose association represents 300,000 smallholders across Malaysia.

“We call upon you, as a friend of Malaysia, to publicly disassociate the Government of France from the actions of these companies, and to condemn their aggression towards Malaysian small oil palm farmers,” he added.

The campaign against palm oil in France came on the heels of an attempt by French legislators to pass a Bill increasing taxes on palm oil products last year which was rejected by a commission in the Senate.

Seeking Bricq's assurance that the French government policies will not unfairly target palm oil, Aliasak pleaded for her support for positive trading relations between France and Malaysia.

“Minister Bricq, you have an opportunity this week to reset relations between France and Malaysia on this important issue and to put an end to negative allegations from French multinationals,” he said.

The oil palm industry has been linked to allegations of deforestation and dangerous trans-fat content.

The industry, however, had refuted such claims.

14 Months After Field Planting

At this stage, need to do slashing and remove the small trees. Fertilizing at least one in two month.

Oil palm players to meet in Tawau. From New Straits Times

TAWAU: A gathering of oil palm industry players for a conference here next week will help keep the momentum for continued growth in the sector in Sabah.

The 4th Palmex conference will be held from Tuesday until Thursday, bringing together some 40 international exhibitors and more than 100 key stakeholders at Promenade Hotel here.

Industrial Development and Research Department director Patrick Tan said things were looking up for the industry in the state, which accounted for about a third of the nation's crude palm oil output.

The three-day event would further strengthen the industry, said Tan, who is also the organising committee chairman of the conference cum exhibition, which will be held here for the first time.

The event was first held in Kota Kinabalu and the last two were held in Sandakan.

"We feel that the momentum is picking up, in so far as foreign investors' interest and local players' participation are concerned."

Tan said as the biggest crude palm oil producer in the country, Sabah also placed priority on achieving the Economic Transformation Programme's objective of tripling the gross national income from RM81 billion last year by 2020.

Read more: Oil palm players to meet in Tawau - General - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/oil-palm-players-to-meet-in-tawau-1.294712#ixzz2VPivFawo

More anti-palm oil campaigns on the horizon with new hurdles Commodities Talk - By Hanim Adnan

Hanim Adnan

WHILE Malaysia fought admirably to topple the anti-palm oil campaigns such as the Nutella Tax proposal in France and the palm oil labelling issue in Australia last year, more smearing campaigns instigated by Western NGOs and green activists are set to crop up this year.

Of particular interest would be the possible introduction of new trade barriers targeted specificially at palm oil by several member countries within the European Union (EU).

Market observers, including the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), are saying that 2013 would see a dangerous new tide of trade regulations, red tape and protectionism that would jeopardise the market access of palm oil and other vegetable oils into the EU.

The EU governments are now legislating their food standard policy in which palm oil, in particular, is being attacked both on the health and sustainability fronts.

In France, the false claims on palm oil's alleged adverse impact on health and the environment being circulated in the French media continue to influence the minds of consumers there, despite the support for palm oil by French scientists and experts from the Centre for Agricultural Reseach for Development, the renowned Pasteur Institute and the French Foundation for Health and Nutrition.

What started in France last year has triggered a domino effect, whereby the safety concerns on palm oil are being heavily raised in Belgium and Switzerland.

In Belgium, the Constitutional Health Council is undertaking investigations on palmitic acid and is planning to publish a report outlining the fabricated dangers to the Belgian consumer's diet.

Also, similar to what had happened in France last year, several politicans in Switzerland are championing for a ban on using palm oil in certain districts.

According to the MPOC, the European Commission (EC) later this year would release a Communication on Sustainable Food believed to be the first step towards an EU policy outlining full environmental and sustainability standards for food consumed in the region.

The EC is also looking at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of food consumption, reducing the land use of food imports, incentivising the improvement of resource efficiency and food security and reducing water usage in agriculture.

In view of all these, will Malaysia, as one of the world's largest producers of palm oil, take a stand at the World Trade Organisation should the EU introduce its discriminatory sustainable food standards later this year?

Ironically, all this is happening at the onset of oil palm being extensively cultivated in new frontiers such as Africa, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar with the noble intention of generating income and eradicating poverty among smallholders and farmers.

Given the growing world population and per capita income, it has been projected that palm oil demand would continue to increase from 45 million tonnes in 2010 to 60 million tonnes in 2015, and hitting a whopping 75 milllion tonnes in 2020.

In terms of yield, palm oil production is one-tenth more than other oilseed rivals such as soybean oil and rapeseed oil, making it far more economical to produce crude palm oil.

Deputy news editor Hanim Adnan knows that the truth will prevail in the battle between palm oil and its detractors.

NKEA SMALLHOLDER RUBBER AND OIL PALM PLANTING

The eradication of rural poverty is a priority goal of the Government.  To raise rural incomes above the poverty line, the Government is relying on the development of smallholder rubber and oil palm planting as a major strategy. 

To achieve the income objective, each smallholder will need to manage at least four hectares of either rubber or oil palm crop.  In this connection, the Federal government has agreed to provide the necessary funding under the National Key Economic Area (NKEA) initiative.

Planting oil palm on peatland. The Star

PLANTING oil palm on peatland has been a heavily debatable topic among oil palm planters and Western NGOs for quite some time but this issue is set to excalate to new levels this year.

Oil palm planters in Indonesia and Malaysia, primarily in Sarawak, are now challenged by a new criterion set by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) under its principles and criteria that prohibit its members (plantation companies/growers) to set up new oil palm plantations on peatland in order to obtain the RSPO certification.

A mechanism, the GHG calculator, has been put in place by the RSPO to gauge the amount of carbon emissions emitted from the “peatland” estates of the specific plantation company designed for the involved planters to “repay their carbon debt”.

Meanwhile, the world's largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer, Indonesia, is expected to extend its two-year moratorium (which expires on May 20) to halt the commercial use of a total 65.2 million ha of its primary forests and peatland in an attempt to curtail deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Given the two scenarios, how will oil palm planters and even smallholders heavily involved with cultivation on peat soil fare under such depressing circumstances?

For Sarawak-based oil palm planters, many claim that they have been fighting a lonely battle on this issue without the full support of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association and government agencies.

They maintain that imposing a moratorium on planting oil palm on peat soil was economically and socially unacceptable especially to the rural community.

So far, 400,000ha of peat soil in the state had been planted with oil palm and these small holdings and plantations provide employment for 40,000 people.

In fact, oil palm cultivation in Sarawak currently accounts for over 1.2 million ha of arable land and has proven to be productive in optimising use of designated agriculture areas.

One could not simply wipe out plantations with over 25 years of oil palm cultivation in peat areas in Sarawak as these estates had proven to be as productive as those planted on mineral soil, said Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association.

Furthermore, Sarawak planters have the Tropical Peat Research Laboratory Unit to thank for successfully turning the once unproductive virgin peatland into valuable palm oil plantation (resource) for the state.

The unit spearheaded by its director Dr Lulie Melling had dispelled the myth that palm oil yield was low when cultivated on peat soil. In fact, oil palm plantation on peatland can yield 25 tonnes of CPO per ha given proper management when compared with the yield from mineral soil of about 18 tonnes per ha.

Presently, some 400,000ha of peatland in the state has been planted with the golden cash crop.

Lulie had said it was hypocritical of Western NGOs to criticise Sarawak's utilisation of peatland for oil palm when the UK had already deforested 80% of its forests and the Netherland's about 175,000ha of peat soil had shrunk to only 5,000 ha.

Deputy news editor Hanim Adnan is most puzzled by the different stand taken by diferent states in Malaysia over the issue on the cultivation of oil palm on peatland.

MPOB e-registration

e-registration is a website for MPOB licensees to register their daily palm oil trade contracts with MPOB from anywhere at anytime 24 hours a day. 

e-registration is user-friendly and provides valuable real-time daily and monthly palm oil price information for the benefit of the industry.

For further information on MPOB e-registration, please call 03-78022927/2929/2930 or email us at din@mpob.gov.my orjariah@mpob.gov.my orloo@mpob.gov.my.