Nigeria did not have any palm oil grower certified according to standards of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) until sometime in September when Siat Nigeria Limited in Rivers State became the first to be certified. This does not mean palm oil produced in Nigeria has been unsafe for consumption or usage; rather, players had yet to sign up to globally accepted standards of production.
BusinessDay exclusively gathered there are also two Palm Oil Supply Chain Certificate holders in Nigeria, both of which were also secured this year. These are Certain bvba, getting certification for its Nigerian operating unit as Perfetti Van Melle Nigeria Limited in Agbara Industrial Estate, Ogun State, and Beiersdorf AG in July, with a certified Nigerian operating unit named Beiersdorf Nivea Consumer Products Nigeria Limited in Ilupeju, Lagos. Presco in Edo State, BusinessDay learnt, has had its certification audit, but yet to receive its certificate. Okomu, which had its RSPO membership approved in April this year (2019), is considered a new member, and now just trying to put things in order to get certified.
In Africa, there are currently 51 certificate holders in the palm oil value chain; 42 supply chains certificates in eight countries, and nine certified growers in five countries. For the certified growers, there are four in Ghana, one in Madagascar, one in Gabon, one in Cote d’Ivoire and one in Nigeria, which also has two out of the 42 certified supply chain certificates.
Major palm oil producers and processors of its many different byproducts in Nigeria appear to be racing to get their operations certified according to standards in order to, among several benefits, gain access to international markets such as Europe where by 2020 it will be hard to find buyers of non-certified palm oil or its derivates.
Certification also gives large companies access to funding from certain institutions, which consider it a germane criteria. Among these is the International Finance Corporation, according to BusinessDay findings.
“What RSPO does is to set the standards for sustainable palm oil production globally,” said Elikplim Dziwornu Agbitor, technical manager, Africa, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), in a Skype interview with BusinessDay from his Accra, Ghana base.
“When we talk of sustainability, it is three key pillars: one pertains to the environment, to ensure that palm oil is produced in a way that is not damaging to the environment as much as possible. The second pillar is the social pillar, that ensures palm oil is produced in a way that is socially equitable where local communities benefit from the palm oil production,” he said.
The third pillar, Agbitor explained, is economic, and focuses on sustainability to ensure that those operating in the palm oil sector operate their businesses in a way that is economically viable, that they have a medium to long-term business plan and that they clearly articulate how they are going to sustain the business. It also ensures that they are not engaged in bribery and corruption and that they are being transparent as much as possible.
RSPO is not a certification body, Agbitor explained, but rather sets the standard. There is also Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), exclusive to Indonesia, and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO), exclusive to Malaysia. RSPO is at the moment the only global standard for sustainable palm oil production.
Europe to some extent buys ISPO and MSPO, but according to Agbitor, if African producers want to sell to Europe, they can only do RSPO because MSPO and ISPO are exclusive to Malaysia and Indonesia, the leading palm oil producers in the world.
Henry Olatujoye, president, National Palm Produce Association of Nigeria, told BusinessDay the “RSPO is good but the platform for it to be established in Nigeria is not yet there”.
“RSPO will only work in a place where there is a regulator, even before one tree is planted,” he said. According to him, while RSPO is good, he still has reservations that “Nigerian operators still do not understand the benefits that can accrue to them by adopting the RSPO policy”.
PwC, in a report titled ‘X-raying the Nigerian palm oil sector’, noted that Nigeria being the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world needs to take the issue of sustainability in the palm oil industry very seriously.
According to PwC, there is need to make progress in the production of sustainable palm oil in the country. The country’s large and rapidly growing population will continue to be a major driver of demand and so the implementation of sustainable practices in the industry is important.
In recent years, there has been increase in demand for palm oil in the country, with 90 percent of the demand coming from food-related sources like household consumption and industrial use for food processing (e.g. noodles, margarines and biscuits).
During the processing of palm oil, three major waste streams are generated: solid, liquid and gaseous waste. The solid wastes are generated from threshing, pressing and kernel cracking which are usually burnt, thus causing atmospheric pollution in the affected areas, noted PwC.
Furthermore, apart from the air pollution generated because of the burning of waste, the soil and water quality are also negatively impacted because of the discharge of Palm Oil Mill Effluents (POME) into the soil. This, the PwC report said, affects the pH level of the soil, thus making it more acidic and unsuitable for cultivation of crops.
CALEB OJEWALE
