French Farmers Blockade Oil Depot In Palm Oil Protest

The heart of the matter is the French government’s policy to allow Total to use palm oil as an ingredient for producing biofuels at its La Mède oil refinery, not far from Marseille.
The policy has sparked a row with rapeseed farmers, who currently supply the biofuel industry, and environmentalists, who are protesting deforestation in Southeast Asia.
The blockade organizers said farmers would stay put for three days until the government ended the use of palm oil at La Mède. “Our target is the government,” and Total’s decision on palm oil was an “outrage”, said Christiane Lambert, head of France’s FNSEA farmers’ union.
French farmers feel undercut because palm oil is currently cheaper than rapeseed oil. High taxes and tight environmental regulations also make it harder for farmers to compete with palm oil producers.
Total says it uses a maximum of 50 percent palm oil and only from certified sustainable sources.
The company, which has invested €275 million ($321 million) to modify its La Mède refinery to handle palm oil, has pledged to buy more rapeseed from local farmers . The La Mède plant can produce up to 500,000 tons of biofuel per year.
Environmental group Rainforest Rescue says that the La Mède refinery will require 650,000 tons of vegetable oils, including 100,000 tons of used cooking oil, 100,000 tons of other vegetable oils similar to palm oil and 450,000 tons of palm oil. That is more than double the amount of palm oil France currently imports.
The standoff in France is the latest in a series of controversies over the use of palm oil in biofuels in Europe. Earlier this year, the European Parliament voted to phase out the use of palm oil in biodiesel by 2020. The decision still needs to be backed by the European Commission and Council before it can come into effect.
The Indonesian government has been lobbying EU member states to oppose the palm oil ban. Jakarta has threatened retaliation, potentially triggering a trade war between the EU and Indonesia. The government has said it could cancel orders for Airbus planes if the EU goes ahead with the ban.
Source : Tribunnews.com with the title French Farmers Blockade Oil Depot to Protest Palm Oil, http://www.tribunnews.com/internasional/2018/06/11/petani-perancis-blokade-depot-minyak-buat-memrotes-minyak-sawit.