08/03/2013 (FoodNavigator.com) - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has unvieled a new support fund to help oil palm smallholders around the world.

The international multi-stakeholder organization and certification scheme has opened up the fund to eligible oil palm growers amongst smallholders all over the world - including Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Latin America and Africa.

“The primary challenge for smallholders to become certified include lack of awareness on benefits of being certified; funding support and lack of expertise or capacity building," said  Darrel Webber, Secretary General of the RSPO commented

"Given the significant ratio of smallholders in the palm oil sector – it is critical they continue to be central in our strategy to catapult sustainable practices in the sector towards market transformation.”

The RSPO executive board approved the institution of fund and its mechanism on last year, revealing that 10% of income generated from the trading of CSPO will be allocated for smallholders.

In addition to this, 50% of any remaining surplus of income within the financial year of RSPO will be channelled towards the same mechanism, it said.

“Smallholders are stewards of natural resources and need to be made aware of the advantages of being certified which include access to international demand markets for sustainable palm oil; longer term efficiencies in terms of yield and productivity as well as effective cost management.” Webber added.