Stop attacking palm oil, says the head of Malaysian Palm Oil Association

December 14, 2020 Tauke Telur

Malaysian Palm Oil Association head Mohamad Nageeb Wahab said all virtues of palm oil have been based on science, but competitors often used ‘manufactured facts’ to belittle it.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Palm Oil Association has lashed out on the ongoing “assaults” that the industry has been receiving these few years.

Its chief executive, Mohamad Nageeb Wahab, puzzled whether there used to be a hidden agenda on the serve of unfavorable media protection of palm oil and rulings such as the European Union’s ban of palm oil on environmental grounds.

Speaking at an online summit on future-proofing the industry, Nageeb described the criticisms as “greenbashing”.

He said that the palm oil industry has never taken an aggressive stance in dispelling the arguments of competitors. All communications on the virtues of palm oil have been focused on research, but rivals also use manufactured evidence to deplete palm oil.

Last month, Associated Press published an extensive reports of sexual harassment of women working in oil palm plantations.

Nageeb stated the impact of oil palm estates on the ambiance proceed to be given broad protection despite sustainable practices being implemented.

He stated certifying bodies primitive environmental and labour requirements, and puzzled why stakeholders derive been unruffled being stressed despite assembly these requirements.

Environmental Protection Society Malaysia president Nithi Nesadurai stated the path to overcoming the stigma related with the oil palm sector used to be elevating certification requirements.

“Hotfoot for the advantageous level seemingly. Transcend expectations and implement the advantageous requirements.”

He added that these efforts to serve certification must also be adequately communicated to the mass media.

“Be conscious, as soon as belief is created, it’s laborious to commerce, severely within the minds of shoppers. It is seemingly you’ll perchance perchance convince the regulators and the producers, however if individuals of the final public derive made up their mind, they obtained’t purchase your product,” he stated.

When it comes to transparency of environmental and labour practices, Kamales Lardi, chief executive of digital consulting firm Lardi & Associate, advised blockchain skills to ticket particular trusty time tracing and verifiable data.

Records entered into a blockchain system would be eternal, and would possibly maybe perchance perchance well no longer be edited or tampered with without leaving a document, no longer like assorted database systems.

Detailed document-keeping utilizing the skills would permit for factual monitoring of land utilize and traceability of merchandise all the intention in which thru the provision chain, and also prevent the mismanagement of worker contracts and employee companies and products.