IOI submits RSPO action plan

PETALING JAYA: IOI Corporation Bhd, which is facing suspension from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) membership, said it had submitted a a detailed and comprehensive action plan to the association yesterday.
In a statement yesterday, IOI Corp’s senior manager of sustainability, Yeo Lee Nya believes that the measures the plantation firm submitted are reasonable and sufficient to resolve the outstanding issues.
“IOI Corp is now waiting for RSPO to review the action plan and give its response. We believe that any statement or comment relating to the effect of the suspension of IOI Corp’s RSPO membership is premature and highly speculative at this stage,” she said.
Yeo also noted that the RSPO has stated that it will make a recommendation to its Board of Governors to suspend IOI Corp’s membership and this suspension will remain until the submission and acceptance of its action plan by RSPO.
The RSPO complaints panel, in a letter dated March 14 2015, has issued a stern warning to IOI Corp to address serious legal and policy non-compliances in Kalimantan, or face expulsion from the Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) market.
Yeo also clarified that the RSPO has confirmed that even in the event of a suspension, IOI Corp’s existing inventory of CSPO remains unaffected and can continue to be sold as CSPO.
“Sales of IOI’s crude palm oil (CPO) will not be affected even in the event of a suspension as CPO is a globally traded commodity. The only effect is that IOI will not be able to earn CSPO premium on our oil which represents only a very small percentage (less than 0.5%) of our revenue,” she said.
IOI Corp fell by 15 sen, or 3.02%, to RM4.81 with 10.79 million shares traded yesterday.