KUALA LUMPUR: The Netherlands today announced its commitment to extend its support for the development of Malaysian oil palm smallholders.
Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, at the end of his two-day working visit to Malaysia, said the country would maintain its involvement in the National Initiatives for Sustainable Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NI-SCOPS) program in Malaysia for the next five years.
"This programme helps Malaysian oil palm smallholders overcome challenges related to sustainable palm oil," he told reporters at a press conference held at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia here today.
NI-SCOPS is a Dutch government supported, public private partnership programme, initiated in 2019 and focused on Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Ghana.
Delivering on the Amsterdam Declaration commitments, the aim of NI-SCOPS is to demonstrate that the palm oil sector can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Paris Agreement climate ambitions, while improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and workers.
Rutte said the Netherlands is a key trading partner and is the largest importer of Malaysian palm oil among European Union (EU) countries. He said 35 per cent of the country's imported palm oil is from Malaysia.
However, he said there have been concerns that the European Union's Deforestation Regulations (EUDR) will be detrimental to small farming businesses and exclude them from the global supply chain.
"I don't want to pretend that we are not in support of the EUDR. We are pleading for an 18-month implementation phase.
"We need accompanying measures and there is a joint task force between the EU, Indonesia and Malaysia. This task force will discuss the implementation of the EUDR so that it would have a minimum impact on smallholders.
"I also told the deputy prime minister (Fadillah Yusof) that we will do everything we can in their (Malaysia's) talks with the EU," he added.
Earlier today, Fadillah, who is also Minister of Plantation and Commodities, said the Netherlands has agreed to extend the programmes signed under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and two Dutch non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for another five years.
"The Netherlands is the largest importer of palm oil among European countries and is also one of the countries that has supported Malaysia in issues related to palm oil over the years.
"They (the Dutch) have established NGOs that help small farmers such as IDH The Sustainable Trade Initiative, an organisation in the Netherlands that promotes trade," said Fadillah.
Fadillah said they also discussed how the Netherlands can provide its support in the context of providing rationales and the best solutions to the issue.
"This includes how they (the EU) can recognise the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme that we had developed and made mandatory for our entire palm oil production sector.
"We hope that the EU will also agree to recognise the MPSO as an EUDR audit process at the meeting, which would help the palm oil industry," he said.
Recently, Fadillah said the MSPO scheme aims to ensure that oil palm cultivation activities in the country do not affect the environment and are in conformance with good and sustainable agricultural practices.
Fadillah said Malaysia will host the second meeting on the EUDR this December which will determine whether the MSPO will be accepted as part of the audit process under the EUDR.
He noted that the first meeting held in Jakarta, Indonesia on Aug 4 last year yielded some positive results for Malaysia.