22/09/2011 (Bernama) - The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) supported the Dutch oil and fats industry's call for the European Union to abolish the import duty on sustainable palm oil.

In a statement, RSPO said the Dutch industry believed the abolishment would offset most of the additional costs to produce sustainable palm oil and would help remove a significant barrier to the market uptake in Europe.

RSPO Secretary General Darrel Webber said certified sustainable palm oil accounted for close to 10 per cent of global oil production, an exceptional accomplishment, for a commodity with such a highly complex supply chain as palm oil.

At present, an import duty of 3.8 per cent is imposed on crude palm oil imported into the European Union.