CM to help in palm oil cer fica on
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal yesterday agreed to help the Primary Industries Ministry to cer fy the state’s palm oil smallholders and companies with MSPO.
KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal yesterday agreed to help the Primary Industries Ministry to certify the state’s palm oil smallholders and companies with the Malaysia Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO).
Shafie said it is important to support the mandatory federal certification despite objections from naysayers as it would help with the production of palm oil that would penetrate the international market and ensure a state-federal united front when it comes to the commodity.
“Even though there are efforts from certain parties to not encourage us to enter with this certification, we are aware and know that MSPO is a step for us to penetrate the international market with the issuance of this certificate,” he said.
The Chief Minister said out of the total of 221,000 hectares, only 2,600 hectares of palm oil smallholder land are under the MSPO in Sabah.
He added the state government had decided in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the Sabah Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry and Rural Development Ministry would play their role in ensuring and explaining to as many smallholders the importance of the certification.
“They would not only have the market, the price has a better guarantee to increase their income. The important thing is the market. There is no use to plant oil palm on vast land if there is no market, no certification and quality.
“What is needed is a certification at the national level, not separately to enable us to penetrate the international market. If we are divided with the certification, they have their certification, the other has a certification, this will become a problem. We work well (together), we have to coordinate our efforts,” he emphasized during a press conference held after receiving a courtesy call from Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok at the Sabah State Administrative Centre here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Kok said a special unit would be established between the ministry and Sabah Government to expedite MSPO certification in the state.
“My ministry will persuade and become the marketing agent for the Sabah state government to invite more investors, entrepreneurs, big players in Peninsular Malaysia and foreign countries alike to come and invest in Sabah,” said Kok, adding that the same would be done to develop Sabah’s downstream timber industry.
During the courtesy call, Shafie told Kok about the serious importance of restoring the confidence of the international community in the new state government’s efforts to overcome wildlife deaths in Sabah.
“Even though we know that it is not easy, the state government has taken steps that would head to the direction of overcoming this problem. Among the steps that had already been taken is the ban of timber export to foreign countries so that there will be less uncontrolled widespread cutting of trees at the Sabah level,” he said.
Shafie also expressed hope that the palm oil price be standardized in the peninsula and Sabah.
Also mentioned during the courtesy visit was the issue of using the state’s rubber to construct rubberized bitumen roads and the seismic bearings for buildings in the state.
“This is a design to help large buildings so that they will not crack or collapse in the event of an earthquake,” Kok told the press.