Certified supply continued to expand, sales more than tripled

As updated charts in RSPO's online Market Center show, the combined production capacity of certified oil palm plantations and smallholders (top) grew strongly in 2010, from 1.4 million tonnes/yr in January to 3.4 million tonnes/yr in December.

The volume of actual RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil on the market swelled from 1.3 million tonnes in 2009 to 2.3 million tonnes in 2010 (second chart, green bars).

Sales of sustainable palm oil (orange bars) more than tripled from 0.4 million tonnes in 2009 to about 1.3 million tonnes in 2010.While there is a delay in market uptake, 56 percent of certified palm oil was purchased as such in 2010 — a substantial percentage.

The past year also saw strong growth in sales of certified sustainable palm kernel products. Palm growers sold GreenPalm certificates covering the production of about 180,000 tonnes of palm kernel in 2010, which amounts to about 35 percent of RSPO-certified sustainable palm kernel supplied in the same year.

More numbers and charts are available in the online Market Center.