Nature Alert: Demand For Eco-Friendly Palm Oil Rises Amid Anti-Palm Lobby

Monday, 26 October 2009

Demand For Eco-Friendly Palm Oil Rises Amid Anti-Palm Lobby

KUALA LUMPUR -(Dow Jones)- Demand for eco-friendly palm oil sourced from major producers Indonesia and Malaysia has risen over the last two weeks, said an industry executive, fueling hope that buyers aren't turning their back yet despite a renewed anti-palm lobby by nongovernmental organizations and consumer groups.

"We have some significant volume traded (over the last two weeks). Over 180,000 palm and palm kernel oil certificates have been traded," said Bob Norman, manager at U.K.-based GreenPalm, a brokerage recognized by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for trade in eco-friendly palm oil certificates.

One GreenPalm certificate is equivalent to a metric ton of certified palm oil.
The volume accounts for 11% of 1.57 million tons, the combined annual capacity of RSPO-certified producers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea as of May 2009.
The rise in demand was mainly driven by a lower premium attached to certified palm oil, which has been shrinking to around $10 per certificate from $40, when the first green palm oil was shipped to European markets last November, Norman said via email over the weekend.

Through GreenPalm, RSPO-certified palm oil producers receive GreenPalm certificates when they register an amount of their palm oil output. The certificates will be up for auction on GreenPalm's trading platform, where buyers bid and buy certificates online.

When food producers buy these eco-friendly certificates, it entails that money goes to growers who produce palm oil with minimal damage to the environment.
Data from GreenPalm's Web site showed that consumer goods companies such as Cadbury Plc (CBRY.LN) and Unilever Plc (ULVR.LN), previously criticized for shying away from higher-priced sustainable palm oil, are now buying more. Like other consumer products manufacturers, Cadbury and Unilever pour palm oil into a wide variety of food and cosmetic products such as biscuits, margarine and lipsticks.

The RSPO was formed after oil palm growers drew flak from NGOs and environmentalists who said oil palm land cultivation led to deforestation and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

RSPO-certified producers using the GreenPalm trading platform include Malaysia-based major plantation firms Sime Darby Bhd. (4197.KU), United Plantations Bhd. (2089.KU), Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd. (2445.KU) and Papua New Guinea-based New Britain Palm Oil Ltd. (NBPO.LN).

-By Shie-Lynn Lim, Dow Jones Newswires; +603 2026 1233; shie-lynn.lim@dowjones.com

http://www.easybourse.com/bourse/actualite/demand-for-eco-friendly-palm-oil-rises-amid-anti-palm-lobby-750348

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.