05/06/2010 (Star Online), Kuala Lumpur - Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sime Darby Bhd, shipped out its first segregated certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) from Kunak in Sabah to Rotterdam on May 29.

The shipment of 3,500 tonnes of segregated CSPO is scheduled to arrive at the Rotterdam Port in about a month. Upon arrival, the CSPO will be transported to Sime Darby-owned Unimills refinery located nearby the port.

The CSPO will then be sent to Unilever, one of Unimills’ major customers and the world’s biggest consumer goods companies, to be processed into various home, personal care and food products such as margarine and soap.

Unimills is a leading supplier of natural vegetable oil-based ingredients to the European food industry.

Sime Darby’s segregated CSPO follows a supply chain model that sources only certified palm oil and its derivatives under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scheme.

Through this supply chain option, the certified oil is kept separate from those sourced from non-RSPO certified plantations at every stage of the supply chain. — Bernama

Sime Darby acting president and group chief executive Datuk Azhar Abdul Hamid said the shipment proved the group’s serious commitment in producing RSPO-certified oil despite the higher costs involved.

In October 2008, Sime Darby Plantation became one of the first few companies to be awarded with the RSPO certification, he said in a statement yesterday.

Azhar said 13 of Sime Darby’s strategic operating units (SOUs) had been awarded the RSPO certification.

“It is our plan to certify our 60 SOUs by the end of next year,” he said.

Azhar said its 13 certified SOUs had the capacity to produce over 400,000 tonnes of sustainable CPO annually.

Sime Darby Plantation is one of the world’s largest plantation companies, producing about 2.4 million tonnes or 6% of the world’s CPO output. — Bernama