24/06/2010 (Deforestation Watch.org) - The recent news on European Union (EU) lawmakers’ views on the long standing issue of the sustainable palm oil production in Malaysia, is a positive development for the local palm oil industry, but some uncertainties still remain.

On Monday, news reported that the EU policymakers were increasingly convinced that Malaysia is on the same path as the EU on the sustainability of palm oil production, however more scientific data to support Malaysia’s case was needed.

It was reported that Dan Jorgensen, who is the vice-chairman of the environment, public health and food safety committee in the European Parliament, had promised to bring Malaysia’s case on its discrimination versus other oils in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).

Jorgensen was on a week-long visit to Malaysia together with two other EU MPs – Martin J. Callanan (committee on the environment, public health and food safety) and Ole K. Christensen (member of the ACP-EU committee).

The MPs were impressed with the work undertaken by the government and the palm oil industry with its efforts in sustainability.

According to industry players, the issue has been a long standing issue between the industry and western countries.

“We have been accused of all sort of things from deforestation to killing of wildlife in the past. This is a positive development especially for the Government. Industry players have been trying to clear up the misunderstanding,” said a player.

“It is good to note that our efforts have started to bear fruit,” said another player, adding that the move was a positive development for the palm oil industry. However, it still remains to be seen the outcome of the scientific data needed for the EU to make a decision.

The local palm oil industry has been questioned especially by the EU on the sustainability of palm oil production for food and biodiesel applications for some time.

Malaysia has also been alleged to have destroyed the orang utans, forests and loss of biodiversity by NGOs. And these NGOs have been campaigning against palm oil imports into the EU, especially for biofuels.

Although Malaysia was being accused by environmentalists for cutting down trees to plant palm oil trees, the country had at least 50% of forest covered as compared with Denmark (12%) and UK (20%).

Malaysia currently had 22 Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified mills.

Malaysian Palm Oil Council chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron has recently reiterated that Malaysia had ample permanent forest reserve for biodiversity and conservation purposes.

He stressed that palm oil was cultivated on legal agriculture land, outside the permanent forest reserve.

Basiron said new plantings were done on land that was legally gazetted as agricultural land, 100% sustainable and were all licensed and registered.

Although the recent development provided good news to the industry, analysts expect a stricter requirements for exporters to ship their palm oil.

“It will not significantly affect palm oil imports into EU as only a small portion, about 10%, is used for energy where the sustainability criteria applies,” he said.