Stakeholders in the oil palm subsector held a policy dialogue in Abuja on Thursday on the implementation of a traceability system in the oil palm subsector.
The stakeholders maintained that with the proper implementation of a traceability system in the oil palm subsector, the local and private sectors will have confidence in investing in the subsector, bearing in mind that it is in compliance with the European Union Deforestation Regulation.
Speaking at a policy dialogue on enhancing the oil palm sustainability system: traceability for an effective market, the Programme Manager of the National Initiative for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (N-SCOPS), Kene Onukwube, said Solidaridad and IDH are jointly facilitating the policy dialogue to stimulate and draw the attention of sector actors to the fact that there is a need for an established traceability system for Nigeria.
He said that currently there is no particular traceability system that most actors comply with, with the exception of the RSPO standard, which has some sections on traceability, but the implementation of a traceability system is not effective across the board.
He explained that “traceability systems are to help with improving food safety quality for palm oil; they will also enhance the market, because inevitably, when the market is improved, so will you have an enhanced market.
“The market system that it enhances opens up better markets for farmers locally and investment opportunities internationally because investors, whether local or international, will be careful to see that their investments are in compliance with existing standards.
“For example, the regulatory framework by the European Union DR is demanding an effective traceability system in place; Cocoa has it, but that of oil palm is very weak; compliance with it is completely not there.”.
Onukwube said 80 percent of smallholder farmers are involved in the oil palm sector in Nigeria; most of them don’t know about this traceability system and don’t practice it.
“So, if you are beginning to check compliance with standards, you are hardly able to determine that this bottle of palm oil with you is from a particular place and has no link with deforestation and that there is an adequate accountability system in place such that you can also speak for the oil palm that where it was being produced did not trigger some social and governance concerns like child labour and slavery,” he added.
N-SCOPS is an oil palm project, and Solidaridad is implementing it in partnership with IDH. Solidaridad is implementing it in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Enugu, and Kogi, while IDH is implementing it in Edo State.
Abraham Ogwu, Senior Programme Manager of IDH, while interacting with journalists, said, “We want to trace the palm oil to know where it is coming from and how it was produced or processed.
“Because of the European Union Deforestation Regulation, one of the components is that where palm oil is coming, you must be able to tell us by geolocation polygon mapping what the social responsibilities of the private sector or the smallholder farmers producing it are doing in those communities.”.
He said the policy dialogue is to set the pace for the discussion, and after this, they will be able to derive a communique that will be used for advocacy at the government and private sector levels.
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