InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - Rukaiyah Rafiq from Forum Petani Kelapa Sawit Berkelanjutan Indonesia (Fortasbi) said that even though EUDR would not directly deliver impacts for independent smallholders, for they do not directly sell to EU, they would indirectly get the impacts. When EU implements the restriction to a company or industry, the smallholders would get the impact for their production would not be purchased by the company/industry that EU rejected.
“The terms and conditions in EUDR could be applied by the companies as the tools to make fresh fruit bunch (FFB) price worse that the smallholders produced, namely the independent ones for they have no direct contact with the mill and their products may be taken as untraceable,” she whose nickname Uki, said to InfoSAWIT.
She acknowledged that for all these years, the smallholders did not get impacts directly about clear information. That is why, Uki proposed to the government to re-regulate policies about palm oil governance to reinforce the smallholders’ palm oil production. “The regulation to improve palm oil governance is the need to intervene traceability and confirm the smallholders’ inclusivity in EU supply chain,” she said.
Just like what Senior Campaigner of Kaoem Telapak, Denny Bharata said, in general, the Government of Indonesia has been socializing EUDR for every planter by having some online and offline meetings.
Kaoem Telapak also involved many parties about EUDR, such as, independent smallholders and the regional governments. The organization cooperates with independent smallholders and other developer organizations, such as, Serikat Petani Kelapa Sawit (SPKS) Sekadau and Yayasan Setara in Jambi to develop multi-party platform for sustainable palm oil in the Regency of Tebo and Sekadau. Since 2022, Kaoem Telapak has been socializing EUDR in the two regions particularly for the smallholders, discussed some activities as the response to EUDR.
“We do support independent smallholders by making education about EUDR and development to publish cultivation documents with the regionals governments and local organizations,” he said.
Back to Uki, she emphasized, it would be significant to accelerate cultivation document publication with the support from palm oil profit sharing. This could be by registering the independent smallholders and following every step to publish it. she also said that it would be significant to get policy to encourage every party, including the companies to support cultivation document publication for independent smallholders. (T2)
