Carrefour launches nation’s first RSPO certified cooking oil

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Tue, July 17 2012, 7:00 AM

Retail giant PT Carrefour Indonesia is now selling cooking oil that is
the nation’s first palm-oil derivative to be certified by a global
sustainable management standards organization.

The certification and sale of the cooking oil, which obtained the
imprimatur of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), would
silence critics who equated oil palm exploitation with environmental
destruction, Deputy Trade Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi said at the
launch in Jakarta on Monday.

“This newest product has proven we can do otherwise,” Bayu told reporters.

The deputy minister said the government had hopes the locally made oil
product would eventually be sold in Carrefour’s overseas outlets,
claiming there was no excuse for nations such as Belgium, France or
the Netherlands to reject the product.

PT Carrefour Indonesia spokesman Satria Hamid Ahmadi said the company
cooperated with PT Musim Mas, one of the palm oil industry’s major
players, to produce the cooking oil.

The product has been priced at Rp 23,000 (US$2.46) per 1.8-liter
container. Carrefour Indonesia put 72,000 units on sale as of Monday,
and the firm hoped to sell 30 percent of its stock by August, when
consumption increases during the Ramadhan fasting month and the run up
to the Idul Fitri holiday, Satria said.

“Currently, we are in talks with countries such as Malaysia, India,
Taiwan and China to export the cooking oil product. We are planning to
start selling the product to them by the end of this year” he said.

RSPO Indonesia director Desi Kusumadewi said that the organization was
expecting that certified palm-oil sales by Carrefour Indonesia, which
has 84 outlets across the nation, would inspire other giant retailers
such as hypermart and Giant to follow suit.

“Among the members of RSPO Indonesia, none of them are retailers. We
are hoping that this launch will trigger more CSPO products in the
future,” she said.

Fadhil Hasan, the executive director of the Indonesian Palm Oil
Producers Association (Gapki), said there were still challenges facing
retailers who wanted to sell RSPO-certified products.

“Unlike the European market, our market has yet to develop an
awareness of the importance of buying so-called sustainable products.
But at least this paves a way to balance the RSPO commitment, for it
has usually been on the shoulders of the producers,” Fadhil said.

Indonesia’s RSPO-certified crude palm oil production stood at 3.05
million tons, or 48 percent of global production, as of mid-July,
topping Malaysia, which produced 2.75 million tons, or 43 percent of
the global total, in the same period, according to the RSPO.

Meanwhile, Musim Mas corporate affairs manager Togar Sitanggang said
the company was planning to open more refineries amid government
support for increasing the export of domestically processed products.

PT Musim Mas currently operated 12 refineries and 8 factories on
100,000 hectares in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Sitanggang added. (asa)

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