Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) has been facing rising expenditure in sustainable practices over the years and the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon, said its chief sustainability officer (CSO) Prof Dr Simon Lord.

“I don’t think being a responsible producer will get cheaper,” he said in a webinar titled Dousing the Fire on Haze and its Misconception today.

Citing the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) data, Lord said the cost to produce sustainable palm oil varies between US$4 and US$12 per tonne of crude palm oil (CPO).

At the group level, he said the cost stood at around US$32 per hectare (ha).

“I did work out that sustainable palm adds US$8 additional costs to a tonne of CPO. Assume a yield of four tonnes per ha, then this would equal an additional US$32 per ha. Of course, the higher the yield then the cheaper (on a per tonne basis) it would be,” he explained.

While Lord said he was not at liberty to disclose SDP’s actual expenditure for sustainability, he said the figure has been “increasing year-on-year”, in line with the rising challenges faced by industry players.

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