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RSPO Delivers Keynote Speech at CFNA’s 2013 Oils and Oilseeds Summit
Beijing, July 24, 2013 – The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) continued its successful engagement in China last week, delivering a keynote speech at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Foodstuffs and Native Produce’s (CFNA) 2013 Oils and Oilseeds Summit in Rizhao, Shandong Province, on July 17. Anne Gabriel, RSPO’s Communications Director, discussed the global development of the sustainable palm oil industry, outlining RSPO’s recent progress, both in China and globally.
China, the second largest importer and third largest consumer of palm oil in the world, is a crucial market for RSPO, which has launched a number of strategic initiatives to achieve its goal of making sustainable palm oil the norm in the country.
According to Anne Gabriel, ‘Our participation in this year’s summit marks another milestone for RSPO in China. In the past year we have more than doubled the number of Chinese members, launched a Chinese language website (
http://www.rspo.org/cn/) and recently signed an MOU with CFNA. The MOU further cements the strategic relationship between both organizations. We believe that through these initiatives we are well-placed to make great progress in China.’
Mr. Bian Zhenhu, CFNA President, said, ‘CFNA is delighted to partner with RSPO to promote a sustainable palm oil sector. We fully endorse RSPO certification and are committed to working with RSPO to promote the procurement and use of sustainable palm oil in China.’
He further added, ‘Green issues are becoming increasingly salient in China. The government is paying increasing attention to sustainability, as evidenced by the current 12th Five Year Plan, companies recognize the value of incorporating sustainable practices into their business models and the public is demanding more action from all players. We believe RSPO has a key role to play in this area.’
Anne Gabriel also noted that RSPO can contribute to stability in China’s palm oil supply. She commented, ‘By de-risking imports through mitigating a possible disruption of supply caused by legal, social and environmental problems, certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) will ensure China has predictability of supply, a key issue for policymakers and industry players.’
Demand for palm in China is expected to grow by approximately 10% per year in the coming years (reaching 8.6 million and 12 million tonnes in 2015 and 2020 respectively). Almost all of China’s palm oil is imported, with approximately 60% and 38% imported from Malaysia and Indonesia respectively. The majority of the palm oil imported to China is used in the food industry, in products such as instant noodles and biscuits. Most of this is used for domestic consumption.
15% of world's palm oil production is now RSPO certified
The current estimated annual production capacity of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil is 8.6 million metric tons, approximately 15 percent of global crude palm oil. Spread over 2.4 million hectares of certified area, about 46.8% of the world's current RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil production capacity comes from Indonesia, followed by 45.3% from Malaysia, and the remaining 7.9% from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Brazil, Thailand, Colombia and Ivory Coast.
In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably-produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with a satellite office in Jakarta.
RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry - oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs - to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.
Such multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Executive Board and project-level Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group to bring group-specific agendas to the roundtable, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders and business competitors to work together towards a common objective and make decisions by consensus.
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