Sime Darby Plantation is largest CPO producer under MSPO
PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby Plantation Bhd has become the largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer under the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification, as all of its estates and mills in Malaysia are now entirely MSPO-certified.
In a statement yesterday, the plantation giant said its 124 estates and 33 mills throughout the country have been certified under the MSPO scheme. Currently, the company has a total annual CPO production capacity of approximately 1.2 million tonnes.
Sime Darby Plantation executive deputy chairman and managing director Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh, said the group will collaborate with relevant autorities to facilitate MSPO certification for smallholders who supply fresh fruit bunches to its mills.
The move is in line with Sime Darby Plantation’s Responsible Agriculture Charter commitment to bring together all of its third-party suppliers towards the group’s sustainability standards by 2020.
“Sime Darby Plantation is proud to support the Malaysian government’s initiative in raising the sustainability standards of the nation’s palm oil industry by ensuring that our operations are MSPO-certified. We are very pleased to be able to achieve this ahead of the deadline set by the government.
“The group is proud to support the MSPO certification because it reinforces the fact that our industry is constantly improving its sustainability credentials. As more and more industry players become MSPO-certified, this would convey the message that Malaysian palm oil is truly a trusted brand of certified sustainable palm oil for global consumers,” he said.
In line with the government’s aspiration to shape a responsible and sustainable oil palm industry in Malaysia, the MSPO certification was introduced in 2015 as a voluntary measure for oil palm planters and mills.
The MSPO is the third such certification standard in the world for palm oil, after the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil or ISPO launched in 2011, and the multi-stakeholder grouping Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil set up in 2004.