Colombian Palm Oil Sector
Fedepalma, the Colombian National Federation of Oil Palm Growers, Solidaridad, IDH - The Sustainable Trade Initiative and MVO - The Netherlands Oils and Fats Industry, have signed a statement of intention to improve sustainable practices in Colombian palm oil industry 28 November 2018. The statement includes commitments from the Colombian sector to zero deforestation and is in line with the existing commitments for certified sustainable palm oil in Europe. Here you can read more about this first bilateral agreement on sustainable palm oil from Colombia.
Colombia is the fourth biggest producer of palm oil in the world and the first in America. It was the 1st country to present a national agreement to eliminate deforestation from palm oil.
The total palm oil production in Colombia comes to 1.6 million ton. This is divided over roughly 500,000 hectares, of which 38,483 hectares are RSPO certified. On these plantations there are 184,000 jobs involved, whereof 4,500 are smallholder farmers. Around 42 percent of the Colombian oil palm exports has Europe as destination.