Keeping smallholders in the biofuel supply chain is a priority commitment in many voluntary purchasing policies of downstream companies in the food-, cosmetics or biofuel industry. Such commitment makes sense: surely, no buyers would want to be associated with victimizing small farmers for deforestation that was overwhelmingly corporate driven.
Companies in EU member states whom are required to comply with the RED as well as the recently approved Due Diligence and Corporate Social Responsibility Directives must have traceability mechanisms in place. This is relatively straight-forward for palm oil derived from integrated corporate mills and plantations (including ‘‘tied’ smallholders); it is more complicated for independent smallholders and independent mills. The market share of the latter two categories cannot be dismissed: Verified data gathered and verified by PT Inovasi Digital and Earthqualizer Foundation show that in Indonesia, an estimated 8.161.797 of all planted area in Indonesia is linked to independent smallholders whilst an estimated 366 of CPO mills are so-called independent mills (mills without own plantation land). Mills of the latter type are known to source considerable volumes of Fresh Fruit Bunches from independent smallholders, often but not exclusively through so-called Palm Oil Dealers (agents, middlemen). These data imply that independent smallholders are practically unavoidable in any palm oil supply chain. For the details please download https://rb.gy/k21pmx