All Indonesia`s Oil Palm Plantations Must be ISPO Certified by 2022

The government of Indonesia set a target for all oil palm plantation to enforce mandatory Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) certification by 2022. “All oil palm plantations must improve their plantation to ISPO certified in two and a half years,” said The Director General of Plantation Affairs of the Ministry of Agriculture, Bambang MM, as reported by Katadata (5/6/2018). Bambang said, ISPO certification gives international market the necessary confidence that the palm oil product they have purchased is produced legally (meaning the company has obtained the required permits) and in an environment-friendly way. ISPO certification also implies certain labor and social standards are respected by the palm oil company. ISPO certification is the first step for the palm oil company to achieve other certification such as the internationally recognized Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The Indonesian palm products rejection from several countries has been linked to environmental issues. Based on a data from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2017, the ISPO certificate has only been given to 346 palm industries with total plantation area of 2.11 million hectare or only 19.84 per cent of the total palm plantation area of 14.03 million hectare. This means only 9.53 million ton of palm is ISPO certified or only 25.21 per cent of overall production of 37.18 million ton.