15/01/2010 (FOSFA.org) - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) ended the year 2010 with strong growth in both the production and use of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil. Compared to 009, numbers doubled, in many cases even tripled compared to the year before.

The number of RSPO members grew to over 500 companies and organizations, while 81 palm oil mills and 113 facilities in the palm product supply chain are now fully certified. “In 2010, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil began to deliver on its promises," said Jan Kees Vis, President of the RSPO's Executive Board. “Sustainably operating palm growers have been certified on an unprecedented scale, with 7.5 percent of global palm oil production covered just over two years after certification took off," Vis said.

Sales of certified palm products have soared as well, he added, “but in 2011 market uptake will need to grow even faster in order to keep up with rapidly growing production." Many companies have pledged to switch to RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil fully by 2015, Vis explained, but until then, it will also be important that users of palm oil match a rising supply with rising market emand.

Certified supply continued to expand, sales more than tripled

As updated charts in RSPO's online Market Center show, the combined production capacity of certified oil palm plantations and smallholders (top) grew strongly in 2010, from 1.4 million tonnes/yr in January to 3.4 million tonnes/yr in December.

The volume of actual RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil on the market swelled from 1.3 million tonnes in 2009 to 2.3 million tonnes in 2010.

Sales of sustainable palm oil more than tripled from 0.4 million tonnes in 2009 to about 1.3 million tonnes in 2010.

While there is a delay in market uptake, 56 percent of certified palm oil was purchased as such in 2010 — a substantial percentage.

The past year also saw strong growth in sales of certified sustainable palm kernel products. Palm growers sold GreenPalm certificates covering the production of about 180,000 tonnes of palm kernel in 2010, which amounts to about 35 percent of RSPO-certified sustainable palm kernel supplied in the same year.

More numbers and charts are available in the online Market Center.