The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil regrets to inform its members that there may be a disruption in the supply of Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) due to the suspension of the RSPO certification of the IOI Group.

The suspension of IOI Group’s RSPO certificates is effective as of 1 April 2016. It follows a decision taken by the Complaints Panel on 14 March and endorsed by the RSPO Board of Governors on 25 March 2016 in relation to the complaint against PT Sukses Karya Sawit, PT Berkat Nabati Sawit, PT Bumi Sawit Sejahtera, all subsidiaries of the IOI Group.

The RSPO Complaints Panel decided to provide further guidance to provide clarity so as to avoid unintended negative impacts related to the IOI Group Certification suspension. This guidance was only made available on midday 1 April 2016. As such the implementation of the IOI Group suspension is now effective from Monday, 4 April 2016.

The complaint filed by Aidenvironment on 3 April 2015 has been the subject of an extensive exchange between the RSPO Complaint Panel, the IOI Group and the complainant, at the end of which the Complaint Panel found IOI to be in breach of Principle no. 2 and  7 of the RSPO Principles and Criteria.  A detailed account of the case and final decision of the Complaints Panel is available here.

The RSPO is hopeful that the IOI Group will be able to find a solution to address the infringements flagged by the complaint and looks forward to continuing its dialogue with IOI. Since officially receiving the information of their certificates suspension, IOI group has submitted a corrective action plan to the Complaints Panel. Sanctions will only be lifted with the approval of the Panel.

The Complaints Panel and the RSPO secretariat has produced a working paper dated 31 March 2016 which details the implications for RSPO members who are customers of IOI and should be used as the point of reference by all affected parties.