RSPO - UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF IOI GROUP'S CERTIFICATION

UPDATE ON THE STATUS OF IOI GROUP'S CERTIFICATION

We wish to inform that the RSPO Board of Governors has endorsed the recommendation made by the Complaints Panel (CP) to lift the suspension of RSPO certification for the entire IOI Group.

The CP is satisfied that IOI has met the conditions set out in its letter to IOI dated 14th March 2016, based on the actions that IOI has taken and implemented since then, see attached table 1.0.

The lifting of the suspension of the RSPO certificates will be effective from 8th August 2016.

The initial suspension of IOI Group's RSPO certificates became effective as of 1 April 2016. It followed a decision taken by the Complaints Panel on 14 March and endorsed by the RSPO Board of Governors on 25 March 2016 in relation to the complaint against PT Sukses Karya Sawit, PT Berkat Nabati Sawit, PT Bumi Sawit Sejahtera, all subsidiaries of the IOI Group.

The RSPO welcomes the good progress achieved so far towards the resolution of this case, as confirmed by both parties involved in a recent joint statement. However, the Board of Governors wish to make it clear that the implementation of the action plan by IOI shall be subject to an independent ground verification by a team of experts. These experts will be appointed by the RSPO Secretariat within 30 days from the date of this letter.

The findings of the independent ground verification team shall be scrutinized by the RSPO CP. The CP will advise the Board of Governors to re-impose the suspension, with immediate effect, if the verification team find significant failures in the implementation of IOI's commitments to RSPO, in correcting deficiencies that led to IOI's certifications being suspended, in the first place.

IOI shall continue to submit its quarterly progress report as mandated by the CP, in its letter of 5 May 2016. At the end of a 12 month period, the CP shall again commission an independent ground verification by a team of experts, following which a review of the complaint will be undertaken by the Panel.

The Panel shall then determine whether the implementation of the action plan is satisfactory and set any other conditions for the continued progress of the resolution of the complaint.

About RSPO   www.rspo.org

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably-produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta, London and Beijing.

RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry - oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs - to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.