Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a global not-for-profit organisation that works with key stakeholders in the palm oil supply chain to develop and implement certification standards to ensure oil palm plantations are eco-friendly and respect human and labour rights, among other criteria.
In an Exclusive interview with The Organic Magazine, Kamal Prakash Seth, Country Head – India, RSPO elucidates on the organisation’s role in India and the roadmap ahead.
How long has RSPO been in India?
RSPO is a not-for-profit that unites stakeholders from the 7 key sectors of the palm oil industry: oil palm producers, processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks/investors, and environmental and social non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.
RSPO has had a representative based in India since 2015 and operates through strategic partnerships with organisations like the ‘Centre for Responsible Business’ and some others. More than 150 RSPO members (for profit organisations and NGOs) operate in India, out of which 68 are Indian companies.
Tell us about the sustainable palm market in South Asia, especially in India.
India consumes approx. 9 million MTs of palm oil every year, of which only 3-4% is produced in India and the rest is imported from SE Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. The aggregate import bill for this, accounts to approx. US$ 5.5 billion out of approx. US$ 10 billion that India spends on all edible oil imports.
Since 2017, the uptake of RSPO ‘certified sustainable palm oil’ has gone up from 10,000-250,000 MTs but there is a long way to go for India to use its purchasing power to put a halt to palm oil related deforestation and exploitation in SE Asia.
Oil palm is often considered the most environmentally destructive oil crop in the world which is a misconception. In fact, it is the most efficient oil crop in the world which needs to be produced and traded in a sustainable manner. As per reports published by International Union of Conservation of Nature (https://www.iucn.org/news/secretariat/201806/saying-no-palm-oil-would-likely-displace-not-halt-biodiversity-loss—iucn-report) and World Wildlife Fund (https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil), the best alternative to palm oil is sustainable palm oil. Palm oil is an incredibly efficient crop, producing more oil per land area than any other equivalent vegetable oil crop. Globally, palm oil supplies 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demand on just 10% of the land.
To put things into perspective, if we need to get the same amount from alternative oils like soybean or coconut, we would need anything between 4 to 10 times more land, which would just shift the problem to other parts of the world and threaten other habitats and species.
How has India transformed the sustainable palm market? What was RSPO’s role in this transformation?
Palm oil is an important crop for the GDP of emerging economies and there are millions of smallholder farmers who depend on producing palm oil for their livelihood. In India, close to 60,000 farmers are involved in palm oil cultivation spread across 330,000 hectares. The area under palm oil cultivation in India has increased by 35% over the last 3 years. Boycotting palm oil is not the answer but demanding more action to tackle the issues and go further and faster, is.
RSPO and WWF (one of our founding members) are currently doing training and capacity building projects in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to educate oil palm farmers about sustainable agriculture practices, leading to the certification of their plantations as per the ‘RSPO Independent Smallholders Standard’ in a step by step manner.
The extension officers of the palm oil mills are going through a ‘train the trainers’ program and the idea is to scale up the trainings for all farmers and mills in this region. Our current focus is to make existing plantations more sustainable and provide market connectivity leading to an increase of yield and income of the farmers over a period of time. 
Hopefully from 2021 onwards, for the first time, refiners and processors will be able to buy RSPO ‘certified sustainable palm oil’ made in India.
Recently, Watawala Plantations of Sri Lanka became the first oil palm grower in South Asia to be certified as per RSPO’s ‘Principles and Criteria’ (the large growers standard). More growers are in the process of doing the same.
What more needs to be done?
Any intervention for sustainable palm oil should ensure that the agriculture practices and livelihood of the farmers are improved and at the same time products made from sustainable palm oil remains affordable by the masses.
At the level of a packet of biscuit, if RSPO ‘certified sustainable palm oil’ is used as an ingredient, the price of the product might go up only by a few paisa. It’s similar for more than 50% of the everyday use products which use have an ingredient of palm.
As per a consumer survey by WWF-India, if Indian middle-class consumers knew the negative impact of non-sustainable palm oil, they would be willing to pay a marginal premium, if at all. The more the demand for sustainable palm oil, the less will be the premium for sustainable palm oil so we are encouraging businesses to transition to the procurement of sustainable palm oil and share the responsibility of market transformation in India.
Future roadmap for RSPO in India?
Going forward, we are looking to educate the Indian consumers about the benefits of sustainable palm oil. #KnowYourPalm is an initiative to make a conscious choice to demand products that contain certified sustainable palm oil.
We are also supporting the formation of ‘Youth for Sustainability India Alliance’ to engage young people for UN SDG 12 and 13, namely, responsible consumption and production and climate action.
