Swiss specialty chemicals group Clariant has teamed up with Wilmar International and L’Oréal to educate Malaysian palm oil producers on sustainability, certification and supply chain traceability – and increase productivity by 20 percent.

The project, named Sustainable Palm Oil and Traceability with Sabah small producers – or SPOTS, aims to transform some 500 smallholders in Sabah into a certified Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) by 2020.

“Only with better agricultural practices and a closer connection to global markets will living conditions improve for them as well,” said Clariant VP and Asia-Pacific Regional Head Stephan Lynen. “A goal of this partnership is to continuously meet the environmental and social expectations of the global partners, and to ensure the smallholders are RSPO-compliant and certified by 2020.”