Sales of physical RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) have seen a 43% growth in the first five months of 2017 (2,065,870 tonnes), compared with the same period last year (1,449,288 tonnes). The increase was particularly evident within the Identity Preserved (IP) and Mass Balance (MB) certified oil supply chains.
These sales were measured by shipping announcements. In the same period, the RSPO system has seen an increase in sales of Certified Sustainable Palm Kernels (CSPK) of 27%, driven by an increase in Identity Preserved (IP) CSPK sales, (up to 950,119 tonnes, compared to 745,326 tonnes last year).
Increased sales of certified materials represent a positive signal to the RSPO growers who invested in certifying their mills and plantations in line with the spirit of shared responsibility and calls for increased commensurate effort by RSPO members.
With increasing growth in sales of physical certified material, the uptake of RSPO Credits in the new IT platform RSPO PalmTrace is seeing interesting developments. More and more RSPO members are registering in the platform and trades have been picking up steadily since the platform’s launch in January 2017 - with RSPO Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) credits reaching historically high prices.
However, sales of Greenpalm certificates through the Book and Claim Supply chain model saw a significant drop of 43% globally in the past year. It’s a similar picture for the sale of CSPKO Greenpalm certificates in Europe and the rest of the world. It’s noted that the drop in the number of Greenpalm certificates is partly due to some larger members’ having come out of the Book and Claim model, while transitioning to Mass Balance/Segregated models; a progressive step.
While it’s positive to see this move from credits towards physical, RSPO will monitor this shift to ensure market inclusivity through the Book & Claim model, which plays a fundamental role in linking growers who do not have access to the physical supply chain, to a market demand of CSPO.
Also recently, the first online and off market deals were made for Independent Smallholder Credits. This is a way to directly reward smallholders for their sustainable production.
