Sustaining health: Excelvite commits to sustainable palm oil use for all products

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Malaysia is the world's second largest producer of palm oil. ©Getty Images (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Malaysian firm Excelvite is committing to the use of sustainably sourced palm oil in the production of all of its palm-based products.

These products include EVNol, EVNol SupraBio – naturally occurring mixture of tocotrienol and tocopherol and EVTene – a natural mixed carotene complex.

These products are made from red palm oil sourced only from Perak, north of Malaysia.

It was awarded the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil Supply Chain Certification Standard (MSPO SCCS) after an audit by the Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM).

With the certification, the firm is allowed to use the MSPO SCCS logo on its product label and packaging. 

“The market has a negative perception on oil palm. The fact is that the palm oil itself and the small holders are innocent and caught in between.

“My hope is that this MSPO SCCS certification and our sustainability initiative will bring forth the realisation that not all oil palm or palm phytonutrient is created equal,” said Bryan See, business development manager.

The anti-palm oil movement has become more prominent, especially in the Western countries in recent years.

Being the world’s second biggest producer of palm oil, Malaysia has been taking steps to protect the reputation of its cash crop.

The Malaysian government has imposed a mandatory implementation of MSPO SCCS for all palm oil processing facilities by Jan 1 next year.

The MSPO mandates that all aspects of industrial usage of palm oil, starting from growing, harvesting, milling, processing, and shipping are traceable.

MOU with WWF

To assist oil palm smallholders to achieve sustainable production, ExcelVite has also signed an official MOU with WWF-Malaysia.

A key goal of the partnership is to help smallholders achieve the MSPO certification before the year ends.

The NGO will be in charge of providing the needed guidance and insights to achieve the goals.

“Many people are not aware that there are more than 650,000 smallholders in Malaysia who are working on approximately 40% of the total planted palm plantation area in Malaysia.

“Very often, these smallholders are not able to fully implement sustainable practices due to various reasons such as cost.

“We are now taking a big step in assisting our partners, particularly the suppliers of palm fruits in achieving sustainability,” said CEO of ExcelVite, WH Leong.