Palm Oil Bans Meet Resistance in Southeast Asia

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Several coun­tries have taken mea­sures against the pro­duc­tion and use of palm oil, a move that has put pres­sure on the main Southeast-Asian pro­duc­ers.

In Sri Lanka, a major source and importer of palm oil, the gov­ern­ment has urged pro­duc­ers to uproot their palm tree plan­ta­tions, and imports have been banned since early April, Reuters reported.

The cul­ti­va­tion of palm trees has been expand­ing in recent years, with plan­ta­tions cov­er­ing approx­i­mately 11,000 hectares. Environmentalists have warned that the pro­duc­tion of palm oil causes defor­esta­tion and harms ecosys­tems.

“Those com­pa­nies and enti­ties which have done such (palm oil) cul­ti­va­tions shall be required to remove them in a phased man­ner with 10 per­cent uproot­ing at a time and replac­ing it with the cul­ti­va­tion of rub­ber or envi­ron­men­tal friendly crops each year,” President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a state­ment, adding that he planned to make the coun­try ​“free from oil palm plan­ta­tions and palm oil con­sump­tion.”

A few months ago, the United States halted palm oil imports from two of the world’s largest pro­duc­ing com­pa­nies based in Malaysia over con­cerns of illicit labor prac­tices in the pro­duc­tion process.

In another blow to the palm oil indus­try, in 2019, the European Union pledged to phase out the use of palm oil in bio­fu­els by 2030 over wor­ries that the extended cul­ti­va­tion of palm trees is unsus­tain­able and leads to defor­esta­tion.

France, how­ever, has moved faster in remov­ing palm oil as a bio­fuel ingre­di­ent from November 2020. Other E.U. mem­ber states, includ­ing Germany and Lithuania, are also on the same track of end­ing the use of palm oil in bio­fu­els ahead of sched­ule.

Malaysia, the sec­ond-largest pro­ducer of palm oil in the world after Indonesia, has opposed the E.U. ban by fil­ing an objec­tion with the World Trade Organization.

Indonesia and Malaysia are also plan­ning a Europe cam­paign to assuage exist­ing con­cerns about the con­se­quences of palm oil pro­duc­tion. While there are larger palm oil buy­ers than Europe, such as India and China, the con­ti­nent is still con­sid­ered a cru­cial mar­ket.

“We’re no longer talk­ing about E.U. reg­u­la­tions against palm oil. We’re talk­ing about a whole gen­er­a­tion of cit­i­zens who believe palm oil is really bad,” Long Tian Ching, the deputy pres­i­dent of the Malaysian Biodiesel Association, said. ​“Consumer minds are now so neg­a­tive that it would be a dif­fi­cult bat­tle to win over their hearts and wal­lets.”

• Reuters
• Euractiv
• The Jakarta Post