PUTRAJAYA: The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) has accepted Colombia, Latin America’s largest palm oil producer and the world’s fourth, as its new member.
Announcing the admission, Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok said Colombia’s reputation would help strengthen the council and provide a strategic partnership in promoting the interests of palm oil producing countries.
“The involvement of palm oil producers in CPOPC is crucial in strengthening Malaysia and Indonesia’s efforts to counter EU’s (European Union) negative campaign against palm oil,” he told a press conference after attending the 5th Ministerial Meeting of the CPOPC here yesterday.
The CPOPC is an intergovernmental palm oil council set up by the world’s two largest CPO producers and exporters — Indonesia and Malaysia.
It aims to control the global CPO supply, stabilise palm oil prices, promote sustainable practices in the palm oil industry, and enhance the welfare of oil palm smallholders; more or less the role that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has in the crude oil industry.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution was present at the meeting.
Kok said Malaysia would take over the CPOPC Chairmanship from Indonesia for a two-year term starting Jan 1 next year. Indonesia assumed the role since its establishment in 2015.
She said the CPOPC agreed to invite Thailand as an observer at its forthcoming meeting.
On another note, Kok said Malaysia and Indonesia would not participate in the EU’s Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) Workshop (related to biofuels) in Brussels in the coming week.
She cited the reason as concerns over the likelihood of the EU using the ILUC’s land use criteria to justify phasing out or restricting palm oil in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive II (REDII) mandate.
“As oil palm producing countries, Malaysian and Indonesia will address various challenges emerging from the EU’s REDII,” she said, adding that both countries were concerned that the proposed ILUC concept would likely discriminate against palm oil in the EU market.
“On that note, both governments have agreed not to participate in the EU’s ILUC workshop,” she said.
On the meeting, Kok said Malaysia and Indonesia expressed grave concerns over the significant anti-palm oil campaign triggered through various non-governmental organisations and even regularly supported by legislative processes in some importing countries that discriminated palm oil.
She said the meeting also highlighted the need to consolidate and increase biodiesel mandatory programmes in respective member countries, as well as to encourage the use of palm biodiesel in other prospective consumer countries. — Bernama