CIIA creates tropic oil task force

Jan. 29, 2013 – Following the recent attacks in Europe against palm oil,
Michel Foucault, secretary general of the International Commission for
Food
Industries (CIIA), has proposed the creation of a “Tropic-Oil Think
Tank Task Force” to the vegetable oil-producing tropical countries
within the CIIA.

Jan. 29, 2013 – Following the recent attacks in Europe against palm oil, Michel Foucault, secretary general of the International Commission for
Food Industries (CIIA), has proposed the creation of a “Tropic-Oil Think Tank Task Force” to the vegetable oil-producing tropical countries within the CIIA.

Africans around the Gulf of Guinea harvest and consume palm oil for millennia, while Indonesia and Malaysia have become the main producing countries. The humid tropics concern also countries of Central America and South America that are important potential producers.

Palm oil has risen to the first rank of the oil consumed in the world. Consumption, 80 per cent in Asia, continues to grow. Of 53 million tonnes in 2012, it would reach at least 77 million tonnes in 2050, excluding processing into bio-diesel projects.

However, the fast development of the palm oil production raises many reactions and controversies:

• Risk of impacts on the environment and biodiversity
• Risks to the health of consumers
• Working conditions on the plantations
• Competition between large modern plantations and traditional production practices

The group's goal will be to support sustainable development of vegetable oils that are produced in the tropics. Tropic-Oil will focus in particular on:

• Defining public policies and sustainable global development by a public/private partnership
• Co-ordinating actions of communication
• Promoting and co-ordinating multidisciplinary research in production/processing

One of the first actions will be to back the first Congress of African Palm Oil which will be held on from June 11 to 13 in Abidjan and organized by the Inter-professional Association of Oil Palm (AIPH) in Côte d'Ivoire. www.apoc2013.com