01/08/2011 (Commodity Online) - Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil through its new trademark decision has suggested in a clear manner that it means business: sustainable business.

There is no introduction necessary for the RSPO: a not-for-profi‑t association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry - oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs - to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.

The certification provided by RSPO is a coveted insignia.

RSPO trademark

Recently, The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has launched its trademark for RSPO certified goods.

However the new RSPO rules downgrade CSPO (Certified Sustainable Palm Oil) purchased through GreenPalm certificates from ‘sustainable’ to ‘mixed.’

In 2009, the RSPO created two different standards of supply chain – ‘certified’ and ‘mixed’ CSPO. ‘Certified’ CSPO is defined as “contains certified sustainable palm oil.” ‘Mixed’ CSPO is defined as “contributes to the production of certified sustainable palm oil.”

After the announcement of new trademarks, the ‘certified’ trademark will apply to all identity preserved CSPO and to all segregated supply chains. The ‘mixed’ trademark will apply to mass balance CSPO and to ‘book and claim’ CSPO, including GreenPalm certificates.

(GreenPalm is a certificate trading programme which is designed to tackle the environmental and social problems created by the production of palm oil.

RSPO certified palm oil producers are invited to register a quantity of their output with the GreenPalm programme. They are awarded one GreenPalm certificate for each tonne of palm oil which has been sustainably produced. They can then put those certificates up for sale here on the GreenPalm web based trading platform.)

Implications

The RSPO’s new trademark will signify sustainably produced palm oil. The RSPO believes that the trademark will enable consumers to base their purchasing decisions on solid information, and according to the RSPO, eliminate the need for mandatory labelling of palm oil.

GreenPalm certificates have recently come under significant pressure from both environmental groups and retailers for falsely claiming that products use CSPO when they have only purchased a certificate of sustainability from GreenPalm.

The latest trademark rules from the RSPO will be a clear disadvantage to those processors and retailers who purchase sustainability off-set certificates through GreenPalm who will no longer be able to claim that they are purchasing CSPO, rather they will have to claim that they are ‘supporting’ sustainable palm oil.

“This appears to be a deliberate tactic from the RSPO to attract purchasers of CSPO through the relatively simple GreenPalm system and then force purchasers towards ‘identity preserved’ and ‘segregated’ supply chains.” said a report.

As stated in 2010 RSPO Market Strategy, after the success of GreenPalm “RSPO hopes to encourage more buyers to begin sourcing sustainably produced palm oil products.”

This move is particularly important for smallholders who are highly reliant on GreenPalm certificates as a mechanism to sell their CSPO, because the burden of segregated and identity preserved supply chains is too costly for smallholders to be viable.