POINTERS: Palm Oil: Sustainable and Responsible Production in Malaysia

By: Mr. Tang Men Kon

Tang Men Kon is currently the Head-In-Charge of Plantation Sustainability & Quality Management, Sime Darby Plantation, which is one of the world’s largest palm oil producers, producing 2.4 million tones or 6% of the world’s crude palm oil (CPO) output annually of which more than 2 million tones is RSPO-certified. He holds a Bachelor in Agriculture Science and a Master’s Degree in Business Management and Administration. He has 25 years of working experience with Sime Darby namely 18 years in research and advisory works in oil palm agronomy and production and four years in plantation advisory as a Plantation Advisor. Since 2011, he has been entrusted to lead Sime Darby Plantation’s Certification and Compliance, Quality Assurance, Occupational Health & Safety, and Green Technology initiatives (Composting, Biogas, etc), as well as CSR related projects such as carbon strategy, wildlife protection and green the earth initiatives. He has authored and co-authored 13 technical papers on various fields of oil palm cultivation and management.

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Malaysia is home to the world’s oldest commercial oil palm plantings and is currently the second largest producer of palm oil worldwide. The Malaysian plantation industry has pioneered most of the best practices in sustainability and continues to leverage on its century-old lead in oil palm research and development experience to continue pursuing sustainable initiatives. The industry has made conscious and concerted efforts to address the concerns of stakeholders including customers, NGOs, and the general public in proving that oil palm is a sustainable crop that can meet the growing demand for edible oil from consumers worldwide, with the least land area expansion and highest yield per hectare compared to competing edible oil crops. The palm oil industry has balanced the 3Ps – People, Planet, Profit - in its growth and expansion to ensure environmental protection, social and community welfare as well as long-term shareholder returns.

This paper describes the major milestones and ongoing efforts towards sustainability by Sime Darby Plantation – the world’s largest producer of certified sustainable palm oil that provides more than 2 million tonnes of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) or 22% of the world’s sustainable palm oil supply.

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Questions & Answers (3) :

Blanca Salas

10 years ago

Dear Sir, thank you for your illustrative paper. As you rightly point out, palm oil’s yields are higher than those of any other vegetable oil. Palm oil is therefore the most efficient vegetable oil, including in terms of how much land is needed to produce a certain amount of oil. However, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed. Your paper suggests that the industry (in particular, Sime Darby Plantation) is the main promoter of sustainability practices in the palm oil sector. In light of the ongoing developments in the major palm oil producing countries (i.e., Indonesia and Malaysia) concerning legislation on mandatory and voluntary sustainability standards, what are your views on the role of the industry behind the development of these instruments? Do you agree that the private sector should be the main driving wheel or, on the contrary, do you believe that its participation should be limited in favour of governmental instances? Thank you very much in advance.

Mohammad Jaaffar Ahmad

10 years ago

Dear Sir, Sime Darby (SD) is a founding member of RSPO. It is also commendable that 100% of SD Plantations Strategic Operating Units (SOU) in Malaysia and 92% in Indonesia have been certified by RSPO. We also understand that soon Malaysia is going to implement Malaysian Palm Oil Certification Scheme (MPOCS) albeit voluntary. My questions are i) Will all your SOU in Malaysia will be MSPO certified and what are the timetable to achieve that? ii) In terms of marketing strategy how are you going to ensure market acceptance of MSPO vs RSPO? iii) In Indonesia, ISPO is mandatory by 2015, how many of your SOU in Indonesia are ISPO certified now? iv) Have you received any demand for ISPO certified products so far? v) Do you think our MSPO should be made mandatory like ISPO? TQ

Mohammad Jaaffar Ahmad

10 years ago