01/11/2011 (The Star) - This month Malaysia will play host to two major palm oil-related events, the MPOB International Palm Oil Conference 2011 (PIPOC 2011) in Kuala Lumpur and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) 9th annual meeting (RT9) in Kota Kinabalu.

PIPOC 2011 is highly speculated to be the venue for Malaysia to officially launch the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standard. This will see the MSPO joining the rank of two other existing palm oil certification bodies the voluntary-basis RSPO and the mandatory-basis Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO).

Anyway, no prize for guessing it right the credibility of MSPO, ISPO and RSPO standards is expected to be a hot topic to be debated at both PIPOC 2011 and the RSPO RT9.

One question that comes to mind is whether the world really needs three sustainable palm oil certifications to garner support for the certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO)?

For the RSPO, the first global palm oil certification body, it had politely indicated that the formation of ISPO and even MSPO were seen as complementary to the voluntary basis of RSPO certification.

In actual fact, the RSPO this year had fallen under heavy criticism by top oil palm growing nations Malaysia and Indonesia, for not being able to walk the talk.

RSPO, so far, is perceived as unsuccessful, given the poor offtake of existing RSPO-certified palm oil especially to Western countries, which were among the earliest to put pressure on palm oil to be certified as sustainable.

Of the slightly over five million tonnes of CSPO by the RSPO, oil palm growers are claiming that less than 50% were taken up with a premium of only 60 US cents versus the non-certified palm oil.

RSPO president Jan Van Kees had recently said demand for CSPO had increased significantly from 25.3% in 2009 to 46.2% last year. Apparently, the rise in CSPO demand in 2010 is not good enough for many oil palm growers.

Early this month, GAPKI or the Indonesian Palm Oil Association has decided to quit the RSPO grouping, stating that its members would instead focus on the government's mandatory ISPO imposed on all oil palm planters in the republic.

The ISPO, which was launched in April this year, will be effective as of March 2012 and all Indonesian plantations will need to get the mandatory certification by 2014.

For Malaysia, many market observers are of the view that the MSPO standard can be more easily implemented nationwide compared with Indonesia's challenging environment in terms of its sprawling and very segregated plantations on various islands of the republic.

Furthermore, many of the big plantations in Malaysia were members of RSPO. Many of their mills are RSPO-certified while those uncertified mills are in the process of getting RSPO-certified.

It is most likely that the content of MSPO will not be much different than those of the RSPO requirement and regulations. The only major difference perhaps is on the cost of getting the MSPO certification, which will be significantly lower than RSPO.

For RSPO certification, a palm oil producer will have to fork out about RM100 for the production of one tonne of CSPO.

Some opined that local plantations which have been RSPO certified could be getting a fast track to MSPO certs while those independent planters with smaller estate holdings would be given incentives to cover the cost of their MSPO certs.

However, in Indonesia, planters with the RSPO certs will still need to undergo the rigorous process of getting the ISPO certs.