This Wednesday, November 4, the Coalition for Sustainable Production held the session "Exchange of experiences: Opportunities for the competitiveness of sustainable palm in Peru, Colombia and Central America". The objective of the dialogue was to share the progress made by multi-stakeholder platforms on their path towards deforestation-free and sustainable palm production.
The main palm oil producing countries in Latin America are orienting their production systems towards deforestation-free and sustainable sustainability through implementation agreements and best practices. The experiences of Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras were reviewed, with the participation of the Federación Nacional de Cultivadores de Palma de Aceite (Fedepalma), Colombia; Solidaridad to comment on the experience in Honduras; and the Gremial de Palmicultores de Guatemala (Grepalma).
A key aspect of the dialogue was to identify the positions of the Peruvian palm oil sector in this scenario, therefore, the main Peruvian players such as Grupo Palmas, Alicorp, Junpalma and the Regional Government of Ucayali (a region that is one of the main production areas in Peru) gave their points of view on how the Peruvian palm oil sector should respond to this market challenge.
"This vision that we want to build together is the vision of Peruvian tropical agriculture, a vision that the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Production are already working on, but it is important to incorporate and work hand in hand with the Amazonian subnational governments that manage the territory. Fabiola Muñoz, Coordinator of the Coalition for Sustainable Production.
Private sector: Towards a certified, sustainable and inclusive oil palm
According to the presentation by Sandra Doig, Sustainability Manager of Grupo Palma, a leading oil palm producer in Peru, the market has a trend towards more fats and the demand for oil is growing with the growth of the economy and the middle class, and in this scenario challenges emerge on how to meet this demand without putting pressure on forests.
"A company like Grupo Palmas, which has 26,000 hectares of oil palm consolidated in two plantations, could make the decision not to grow any more, not subject itself to any risk of deforestation and operate at maximum productivity." However, Doig explains that "this look does not add value to the Amazon. "That look is to put aside a reality where there are poor producers, that there are producers who plant palm with low or high productivity and that there is permanent deforestation that subjects them to poverty."
The company's business strategy is to increase palm production with small producers, seeking to ensure that these suppliers do not deforest, providing them with technical assistance so that they can comply with the same sustainability standards followed by Grupo Palmas.
On Alicorp's side, Magdalena Morales, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, explained that Alicorp has been working for many years with small farmers, with a clear commitment to the country. Under the slogan "Feeding a better tomorrow", the business strategy has a very strong commitment to sustainability and under this approach is that it seeks to promote a sustainable oil palm in the supply chain. In this line, the company launched the "Sustainable Palm Leaders" program, an initiative that seeks to include palm suppliers in sustainable practices.
"We believe that this is a joint effort," explains Morales. "In our case, we have been working hand in hand with our suppliers, so that they can identify sustainability gaps, and with that they can move forward, with plans, to close them. We have launched an inclusive program for the agricultural leaders of the extractors and producers to develop these capacities together with (the organization) Solidaridad and Nest.
The Coalition for Sustainable Production has been organizing this type of dialogue spaces where it brings together companies, civil society organizations, entities and levels of government to help and accompany them in responding to market demands in sustainability, generating multi-stakeholder alliances towards sustainable territorial management.
From the side of Junpalma, its president, Néstor Sánchez, representing the palm production bases, indicated that if producers do not know what sustainability is, we will find it difficult to work with them. This is why technical assistance and public policy support are so important.
Finally, Vicente Núñez, Economic Development Manager of the Regional Government of Ucayali, reminded the audience of the social conditions in which palm was born in Peru, as producers who used to grow coca migrated to palm as an alternative crop. In this regard, he referred to the need for small producers to access financing and the Regional Government's promotion of responsible palm production.
Notes:
The event was organized by the Palm and Forests working group of the Coalition for Sustainable Production formed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Sociedad Peruana de Ecodesarrollo, Solidaridad, Earthworm Foundation, CIAT, MDA, EII, with the support of the Tropical Forest Alliance.
