09/10/2010 (The Jakarta Post) - PT Megasurya Mas, a maker of palm-oil-based products, expects a 30 percent increase in exports to Europe after securing a Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Supply Chain Certification.

Megasurya general manager Wibowo Suryadinata said that currently, the firm exported less than 10 percent of its products to Europe yet it was a significant market that required exporters to meet environmentally friendly criteria.

He said Megasurya exported US$60 million worth of palm oil-based goods in 2009.

“Only Europe places so much emphasis on environmentally friendly palm oil and its derivative products,” he said Friday. “We can potentially grow by 30 percent by exporting to Europe after obtaining the RSPO Supply Chain Certification.”

The firm’s RSPO certification was issued in July but Megasurya only received its first shipment of 1,000 tons of RSPO certified palm oil in late September from a sister organization in the Musim Mas Group, the first in Indonesia to obtain an RSPO certification for oil palm plantations.

Wibowo said his company received various orders from foreign companies after obtaining the RSPO certification.

“We have, for example, received orders from a Dutch firm, an old customer, which is interested in obtaining RSPO certified products for their private labels,” he said.

Megasurya claims to be a one-stop service producing four types of products using palm oil: cooking oil, candles, margarine and both finished and semi-finished soaps.

Wibowo said the Indian subcontinent was Megasurya’s largest export market followed by the Middle East and West Africa. In addition to producing its own brands, he said, Megasurya also sent semi-finished products to other producers and manufactured for private labels.

“The funny thing is that we export semi-finished soaps to buyers in Australia and Japan, who further process it into end products marketed to Europe,” he said.

Wibowo said he relished the thought of possible competition from more manufacturers getting their own RSPO certifications as it would bring down the premium on RSPO certified products.

“Currently there is a premium of $10 for RSPO certified palm oil and the production cost is 5 percent higher,” he said.

“But we believe that as more plantations and manufacturers receive RSPO certification, the premium will be lowered.”

Wibowo added that multinational consumer goods firms had agreed that their products would use RSPO certified palm oil starting in 2015.