KUALA LUMPUR: The launch of the Sawit Intelligent Management System (SIMS) could fulfil the traceability compliance requirement imposed by the European Union (EU) through the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
Former chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron said the country’s palm oil industry must show and prove the traceability of their supply chain from plantation/smallholders to producers and consumers.
“We need the technology to help us do the traceability process, to prove the supply chain is sustainable and (does) not involve deforestation. I hope the new system could address the requirements imposed by them (EU),” said Yusof who is also chairman of DiBiz Global.
He told Bernama this on the sidelines of the three-day Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) International Palm Oil Congress and Exhibition (PIPOC 2023) that commenced on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the plantation veteran shared that DiBiz Global’s blockchain technology is a proven and tested working model that the industry can adopt which could help the country’s palm oil industry in tracing data to comply with the traceability requirements by the EU.
DiBiz creates a digital palm oil supply chain platform that can also be extended to other commodities.
The technology firm in March this year launched the world’s first online marketplace for sustainable palm oil to encourage sales of products certified as environmentally compliant as buyers have avoided the more expensive goods. The trading platform links palm oil buyers and sellers across the supply chain.
Yusof also mentioned the anti-palm oil campaign as a spin-off by the EU which imposed trade barriers on palm oil and is supported by the local non-governmental bodies.
He said the role of the campaign is to validate and justify the trade barriers on palm oil and protect the local seed oil industry from foreign competition.
“They (EU) don’t want us to go in to compete with their locally-produced oil because they are heavily subsidised, so they don’t want the subsidies to be passed on to our palm oil producers as they are expensive and meant for local farmers and not to be shared with foreign farmers.
“So, to prevent the local market from competition and prevent leakage of subsidies to foreign suppliers, they imposed the trade barriers on palm oil producers as the local seed oil producers would not be affected by these barriers,” he stressed.
Earlier yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim launched SIMS which is designed to facilitate transactional data management along the palm oil supply chain.
The system, developed by MPOB, enables comprehensive information management, enhancing industry efficiency and cost savings and aims to promote self-regulation, reduce government oversight, provide user-friendly features, enhance security, and offer valuable decision-making insight. – BERNAMA
