The government has set itself the target of issuing Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) standards in August 2010 at the latest, an Agriculture Ministry official said.

The ISPO standard would prove that development of oil palm plantations in the country did not destroy the environment, the ministry`s director general of plantations, Achmad Mangga Barani, said on Tuesday.

"The government has never turned a blind eye to the cases befalling the national palm oil industry but has responded to them," he said in a discussion on strengthening nationalism against global imperialism in CPO trade.

He said the ISPO standard was made by a team of government officials and stakeholders in the palm oil industry. The government officials included those from the agriculture ministry, the forestry ministry, the energy and mineral resources ministry and the state ministry for the environment.

He said the government was also in the process of developing an IT desk to anticipate black campaigns launched by developed nations against the development of the country`s oil palm plantations and CPO industry.

"So far, they have issued statements attacking our palm oil industry through the Internet. That`s why we have to counterattack by strengthening IT (information technology)," he said.

The IT desk would be coordinated by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, he said.

Secretary General of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) Joko Supriyono said the black campaigns had weakened the competitive edge of Indonesia`s palm oil products in the global market.

The campaigns were nothing more than a trade war because palm oil had higher economic potentials than vegetable oils produced by European countries, he said. THE END

Source: The Antara News