13/11/2010 (PR USA) - Smallholders at Cargill's oil palm plantation, PT Hindoli, have been officially awarded their Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification during the 8th Annual Roundtable Meeting on Sustainable Palm Oil in Jakarta on November 8-11, 2010.  President of RSPO, Jan Kees Vis, presented the certification to the smallholders' cooperative representative from South Sumatra, Indonesia, which is the  world's first smallholder scheme to become certified under the RSPO's Smallholder Principles & Criteria.

"This is an achievement that we celebrate with our smallholder partners," said Anthony Yeow, president director of PT Hindoli who attended the meeting. "Our team has worked closely with smallholders throughout the certification process since 2008, and this is a landmark accomplishment."

Cargill's PT Hindoli crushing mills in South Sumatra process fresh fruit bunches from its owned oil palm estates and the fruit bunches it purchases from the smallholders' scheme. Cargill plantation operations consist of 8,800 smallholders organized in 17 cooperatives with 17,594 hectares planted with oil palm. The RSPO smallholder certification by the Executive Board of the RSPO was independently audited by BSi Management Systems. The RSPO approved PT Hindoli's smallholder sustainable certification on August 4, 2010.

"We fully support the RSPO and Principles and Criteria and certification procedures to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil throughout the supply chain. Our 8,800 smallholder partners in South Sumatra have demonstrated through their extraordinary efforts that smallholders can develop sustainable farming practices. Adoption of responsible and sustainable practices by smallholders will lead to rising rural incomes as demand for certified sustainable palm oil continue to grow," said Angeline Ooi, chief executive officer of Cargill Tropical Palm Holdings Pte. Ltd, Cargill's palm oil joint venture company.

Cargill's owned palm estates, PT Hindoli, received RSPO certification in 2009, and the company is working towards getting RSPO certification for its other palm plantations, PT Harapan Sawit Lestari and PT Indo Sawit Kekal. Cargill's European and Malaysian refineries also have received approval to offer RSPO products.

Furthermore, in July 2010 Cargill announced collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund-U.S. (WWF) to undertake an assessment of its palm oil suppliers in Indonesia as part of its continued commitment to sustainable palm oil production. The assessment will help gauge current progress amongst Cargill's suppliers to implement the principles and criteria established by the RSPO.