15.11.2018 (The Edge Markets MY) - KOTA KINABALU (Nov 15): The Sabah Government will go all out to assist the Federal government in getting oil palm smallholders achieve the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification, says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau.

“We will assist in whatever way that we can,” he told reporters after officiating the closing ceremony of the four-day Roundtable Conference on Sustainable Palm Oil (RT16) here, today.

Asked whether he was confident that Malaysia could achieve the target of getting 650,000 smallholders to obtain the MSPO certification, he said: “That is another story, but we will do our best to assist the Government.”

As of December last year, a total of 222,778 hectares under oil palm had been MSPO certified.

To elevate the country’s palm oil industry to global standards, the MSPO certification will be made mandatory by end-2019.

This means that the smallholders, who account for about 40 per cent of Malaysia’s palm oil production, would need to have the certification by then, while those who are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification would need to be MSPO-certified by June 30, 2019.

RSPO was established in Switzerland in 2004 when 47 organisations signed a Statement of Intent declaring their intention to participate in the RSPO.

Meanwhile, in his closing remarks, RSPO Co-Chairman Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen urged the organisation to continue to evolve in order to remain relevant and achieve market transformation.

He said the RSPO had conducted 18 face-to-face events in 13 countries, six physical Task Force meetings, and had received over 11,500 individual stakeholder comments.