Wilmar’s continued business success relies upon the availability of our crops as a renewable resource. It is in our interest both as an agribusiness company and as responsible citizens to keep the environment healthy and productive through responsible management. In that regard, Wilmar promotes sustainable palm oil production and aims to increase its production volume in our supply chain from third-party certification using the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standards framework as benchmark, which we believe currently represents the highest standards for the industry.

We were one of the first palm oil companies to achieve RSPO certification, having attained our first certification for 4 estates and 3 mills in December 2008. We are progressively pursuing audits for the rest of the Group and hope to have all our plantation operations audited in 4 years.

Apart from our own plantations, we also procure and source oil palm fruits from local - supported (plasma) and independent - smallholders for our mills. Like other palm oil companies, we recognise that many of these suppliers may not meet our expectations immediately, which may limit our ability to procure palm oil from sustainable sources.

Despite the supply chain complexity facing us and the industry, we remain resolved to work with multi-stakeholders, including local farmer-suppliers; the industry and civil society organisations, to address these challenges. We have started socialising the RSPO concept and its accompanying standards to our associated smallholders, training and encouraging them to adopt responsible agricultural practices. We hope to ultimately bring them on board our certification scheme and integrate them into our sustainable value chain.

A traceability system for sustainable palm oil is a clear and decisive step towards increased transparency in the supply chain. This system needs to be third-party certified, and is used in the supply chain to track, record and report the amount of palm oil coming from certified sustainably-managed plantations.

With certified sustainable palm oil - which currently refers to produce from a palm oil mill and its supply base when it complies with RSPO P&C and its compliance is independently verified by an RSPO-approved certification body – now available, all members in the supply chain can now purchase and demonstrate their support to sustainable palm oil production through one of the four supply chain models, which are approved by RSPO:

• Identity Preserved
• Segregation
• Mass Balance
• Book and Claim

This system also offers opportunities for product labeling.

Further to RSPO certification for its mills and their supply base, Wilmar subscribes to this RSPO-approved Chain-of-Custody system and has attained the Supply Chain Certification (interim approval) to sell certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).

For more information on the above certification systems, please refer to “RSPO Supply Chain Certification Systems”, click here.

Formally set up in 2003, RSPO is a global, multi-stakeholder association to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil. It aims to bring different groups to the same table, and work towards common objectives. These groups comprises of different stakeholders in the entire palm oil supply chain such as planters, processors, traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, bankers, investors as well as environmental and social non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

RSPO was first started by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Unilever, amongst others, that represent various stakeholders in the palm oil sector. The association has since grown to incorporate more than 300 members to date.

To achieve its objectives, the association sets guidelines to cover the environmental and social dimensions of palm oil production, which has since been developed into eight main principles in its key guidance document - the RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C). This framework was formalized in November 2007. It serves as a guide to the palm oil producing countries, interpreted in accordance with their national legal and regulatory requirements. These countries are Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Colombia.

These national interpretations of the P&C form the basis of the certification scheme, by setting the necessary standards for assessment. Additionally, the certification scheme also consists of the certification process and the accreditation requirements. The certification process requirements ensure that all standards are met, while the accreditation requirements ensure that the organisations going for the certification scheme are credible and consistent.

For further reading on RSPO, click here.