As efforts to strengthen sustainability practices and increase awareness of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) in more established palm oil producing markets continue, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international not-for-profit organization that unites stakeholders from grower to consumer across the palm oil industry value chain has noted a shift in new producer markets in Latin America and Africa to ‘get things right the first time’.
According to RSPO, there has been a “significant increase” in the production of RSPO CSPO from January 2017 to date in Latin America.
From 24 mills across Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Brazil – a record 741 896 tonnes of CSPO was produced; accounting for an impressive 21 percent of total regional output.
In Colombia alone, CSPO production increased 17 percent and the total certified area increased by 33.5 percent. In Guatemala, the certified area increased by almost 38 percent. Similarly, in Ghana, CSPO production increased by almost 32 percent during this period and certified area increased by 22 percent.
Positive outlook
Whilst the first eight months of 2017 are encouraging, the RSPO acknowledges that there’s much work to be done in all producing countries in order to get more smallholders certified. However, it’s a positive outlook for Latin America where the certified area of RSPO smallholders doubled in Guatemala and tripled in Colombia during the past 8 months.
A key highlight is that the first group of independent smallholders (ASOCOFOR) were certified in Ecuador last month which RSPO says is “a promising sign of the feasibility of certification of independent smallholders” in the region.