InfoSAWIT, KUALA LUMPUR – The Government of Malaysia would accelerate the initiative to help the smallholders to obey European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) that would be implemented on 30 December 2024. It would ban commodity imports, such as, palm oil that relates to deforestation to be imported to European Union countries. Minister of Plantation and Comodity Malaysia, Johari Abdul Ghani said it on Friday.
EUDR mandated that every company that sells some products, such as, bean, beef, and palm oil (products), should confirm the product supply chains would not contribute to forest damages. Besides, European companies are banned to export products that were planted from deforestation areas.
Malaysia and Indonesia that contributed 85 percent of palm oil export globally, criticized EUDR for it was considered to be discriminative and targeted to palm oil (industries). Johari Abdul Ghani emphasized that Malaysia published the sustainable standard through certification scheme for its palm oil industries.
About 450.000 smallholders contributed 27 percent of the total palm oil production in Malaysia. The government now focuses to develop the initiative to help them to get transition to obey EUDR.
“This is the significant thing to make sure that the smallholders’ source of living would not have issue from the regulation,” he said, as InfoSAWIT quoted from Reuters even though he did not deliver the detail about the initiative.
The Government of Malaysia would find out the traceability of the products, the obedience to obey free-deforestation principles, the legal area ownership, the labors’ practices to confirm their sustainability.
By the early of this month, Malaysian Palm Oil Board urged European Union to postpone EUDR implementation by saying that it would be negative for the smallholders. The country also emphasized that every party wanted to get and conduct fair trade.
But European Union rejected it by saying that the regulation would be the need to make sure that European Block did not contribute to the forest damages whole over the world. European Union remained in its position to implement the regulation as it was scheduled. (T2)
