Sawit Centre

The Global Center Of Excellence In Oil Palm

Sawit Centre is based in Indonesia and managed by competent people from various parts of the world. Sustain you in a great work, business, research and innovation in grand-sector of palm oil.

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The Need for Sustainable Palm Oil

Fulfills Increasing Global Food Demand

Supports Affordable Food Prices

Support Poverty Reduction

Safeguards Interests, Communities, Workers

Protects The Environment & Wildlife

What are Our Aims to

Fostering and developing the capabilities, activities and interests of Global oil palm entrepreneurs and integrating balanced interests and linkages between potential oil palm entrepreneurs.

Encourage the creation of conducive palm oil industrial plants.

Help improve the ability of members to reach the supported palm oil industry.

Facilitating and advocating for problems solved by the palm oil industry.

The Palm Industry

The palm industry is a tropical vegetable oil revolution that has brought profound changes in the world vegetable oil market. This is dedicated by the dominance of palm oil in the production and consumption of world vegetable oil.

The achievement of such an impresive palm oil industry has captured the attention of the public, NGOs and international institutions globally. Various forms of negative campaigns and protective policies to tackle the palm oil industry are a reaction to the palm oil revolution.

Support Sustainable Palm Oil Development

To implement a sustainable, environtmentally-friendly and fair trade palm oil industry, SAWIT CENTRE exists as a credible, independent and visionary global partner. As a global non-govermental organization, SAWITCENTRE takes a position in the middle that connects the concerned parties.

If you are interested in being an industry or institution that supports sustainable palm oil development, SAWITCENTRE is your friend. Let’s make it happen together.

Roadmap & Challenges

To take a strategic role in taking/supporting Indonesia.

To become the market leader of palm oil in the world
To become initiator of the global quality standard of palm oil products/industries
To maintain the confidence as a country that best understands palm oil and its entire supply chain
To become a reference center for research and study of world palm science and technology
To keep leading in technological progress and innovation in the entire palm supply chain

What is Palm Oil?

It’s an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees, the scientific name is Elaeis guineensis. Two types of oil can be produced; crude palm oil comes from squeezing the fleshy fruit, and palm kernel oil which comes from crushing the kernel, or the stone in the middle of the fruit.

Oil palm trees are native to Africa but were brought to South-East Asia just over 100 years ago as an ornamental tree crop. Now, Indonesia and Malaysia make up over 85% of global supply but there are 42 other countries that also produce palm oil.

Why do we use palm oil?

Palm oil is used in many of the products on supermarket shelves, from margarine and chocolate to ice cream, soaps, cosmetics, and fuel for cars and power plants. The reason why palm oil is so popular is because:

It has great cooking properties – it maintains its properties even under high temperatures.

Its smooth and creamy texture and absence of smell make it a perfect ingredient in many recipes, including baked goods (such as biscuits) in particular.

It has a natural preservative effect which extends the shelf life of food products.

It is also the highest-yielding vegetable oil crop, which makes it very efficient. It needs less than half the land required by other crops to produce the same amount of oil. This makes palm oil the least expensive vegetable oil in the world.

What is the impact of palm oil farming on the environment?

In some regions, oil palm cultivation has caused – and continues to cause – deforestation. This means that land, which was once predominantly covered by primary forest (forest that has never been touched by man) or which housed protected species and biodiversity, was cleared in order to be converted into palm oil plantations.

Likewise, some palm oil plantations were developed without consulting local communities over the use of their land. Some have even been responsible for forcibly displacing people from their land. Violations of workers’ rights to fair payment and safe working conditions and other malpractices have also occurred.

Despite widely-reported malpractices in the industry, a growing number of players in the palm oil industry have committed to adopting more sustainable practices. The result of this gradual transition is an increasing amount of palm oil in our products that has been produced and sourced in a sustainable manner.

Why can’t we simply replace palm oil?

Although using other vegetable oils seems like a practical solution, it would actually create similar – if not even larger – environmental and social problems. Therefore, the best solution is to ensure you buy products that contain sustainable palm oil.

There is a misconception that these concerns can be addressed when companies simply stop using palm oil in their products. However, this is not as easy as it sounds for a number of reasons:

Replacing palm oil with other types of vegetable oil (such as sunflower, soybean or rapeseed oil) would mean that much larger amounts of land would need to be used, since palm trees produce 4-10 times more oil than other crops per unit of cultivated land. This would result in serious environmental damage, with the risk that more forests would need to be converted into agricultural land.

In producing countries, millions of farmers and their families work in the palm oil sector. Palm oil plays an important role in the reduction of poverty in these areas. In Indonesia and Malaysia, a total of 4.5 million people earn their living from palm oil production. Stopping the production of palm oil altogether would create significant problems for these people who support their families by working in this industry.

Replacing palm oil with other types of oil is not always feasible due to palm oil’s unique properties as food ingredient. Using other oils would not give the products the same texture and taste that palm oil offers.

Ready to get started?

If you are interested in being an industry or institution that supports sustainable palm oil development, Sawit Centre is your friend. Let's make it happen together.