On an average, less than 40 tonnes a month of B5 fuel had been taken up so far by the Defence Ministry, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall and Selangor’s Public Works Department, StarBiz had reported recently.
The usage by the government department contradicts the government’s target of 500,000 tonnes of biodiesel requirement a year for the full implementation of the B5 programme in 2010.
Dompok further said that the local palm oil industry had progressed towards attaining the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification for its operations.
Dompok was of the view that the country had a total of 157,000ha producing over one million tonnes of palm oil certified under the RSPO.
Dompok said: “Attention will be given to bring on board the smallholders into the RSPO process.” In Malaysia, close to 40% of planted areas are managed by smallholders.
As per the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad, the board would embark on RSPO certification for 10 clusters, each comprising 300 to 400 smallholders.
“Adhering to RSPO certification procedures means that smallholders will adhere to MPOB’s good agricultural practices, thus helping to improve their productivity,” Sabri added.
“This is a far cry when compared with the big boys in the plantation sector hitting between 30 and 40 tonnes per ha per year,” said Sabri.
On the issue of poor take-up rate in premium certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO), MPOB secretary-general Datuk Dr Mohd Basri Wahid said the CSPO should be priced higher at $30 to $50 per tonne.
This was given the efforts in terms of high investment, research and time-consuming processes that oil palm planters had to ensure to get certified, Wahid said.
