7 Jul 2010 --- 3,500 tonnes of Sime Darby’s segregated Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) arrived yesterday evening in the port of Rotterdam, underlining the company’s commitment to sustainable agriculture. This shipment of fully traceable segregated palm oil is the first for the world’s largest producer with a European destination. A second shipment will follow later this summer.

The shipment of segregated CSPO left Kunak, Sabah on the 29th of May following a supply chain model that sources only palm oil that is certified under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scheme. Through this supply chain option, at every stage the certified palm oil is kept separate from those sourced from non-RSPO certified plantations.

Recently Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd also received certifications for another eight of its Strategic Operating Units (SOUs) from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), bringing the total number of certified SOUs to 13 to date and making its European subsidiary Unimills the largest supplier of sustainable palm oil in Europe.

Sime Darby Acting President and Group Chief Executive, Dato’ Azhar Abdul Hamid, said: “In October 2008, Sime Darby Plantation became one of the first few companies to be awarded with the RSPO certification, which was the start of the journey to provide sustainable palm oil for consumption.”

“It’s our plan to certify all of our 60 SOUs by the end of 2011,” he noted, adding that the 13 certified SOUs have the capacity to produce over 400,000 tonnes of Sustainable Crude Palm Oil (CPO) annually.

RSPO is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative towards the production of sustainable palm oil. Its key objective is “to promote the growth and use of sustainable palm oil through co-operation within the supply chain and open dialogue between its stakeholders.”

RSPO certification ensures adherence to sustainable agricultural practices, including zero burning, natural pest management, composting of waste and water management, as well as the provision of housing, healthcare and educational facilities for the workforce.

Alexander van der Klauw, Managing Director of Unimills, said: “We are very proud of today’s announcement as this is yet another example of our commitment to sustainability. Not only are we dedicated to growing palm oil sustainably and responsibly, we see to it this mindset and approach is adhered to throughout the entire supply chain.”

“The European mindset is changing and sustainably produced oils increasingly are part of our conversations with our customers. The arrival of this shipment and these additional certifications underline our efforts towards fully sustainable operations and currently make Unimills the largest supplier of sustainably produced palm oil on the European continent,” he concluded.

Sime Darby Plantation undertook the first Sustainable Palm Oil Traceability (SPOT) Project in February 2007 to assess the effectiveness of the RSPO supply chain options. The project’s main aim was to test whether a specific batch of verified sustainable palm oil produced at an oil mill in Malaysia could be tracked along each link of its supply chain - from plantation to the refinery and up to the end consumer product.

The project proved to be a success using the Mass Balance option, which allows for the mixing of quantifiable RSPO and non-RSPO certified palm oil at any stage along the supply chain.

With the availability of segregated RSPO certified sustainable palm oil, downstream processors or users can now claim that the oil has gone through the RSPO supply chain certification system which is able to track each individual batch of palm oil traded through supply chain models, thus preserving the claim to sustainable production.