What RSPO Certification Asks Of A Trader
Mass balance, segregated, identity preserved. The three supply chain models, and what each one obliges the desk in the middle to document.
RSPO certification is usually explained from the plantation end. What it asks of the desk in the middle is a different question, and it is the one that decides whether your certified claim survives the trade.
Three supply chain models are in use. Identity preserved keeps one certified mill’s material physically separate the whole way. Segregated keeps certified material separate but allows it to be mixed with other certified sources. Mass balance allows certified and conventional material to be mixed, with the certified volume accounted for administratively rather than physically.
Each model obliges the trader differently. Under mass balance the obligation is arithmetic — volumes in, volumes out, claims never exceeding what was bought certified. Under segregated and identity preserved it is physical as well: storage, transfer and transport all have to keep the material apart, and every hand-off has to be documented as having done so.
A claim is only as strong as the weakest link that carries it. We hold certification at our own step of the chain and can supply RSPO-certified product against it — which model suits you depends on what your own customers are being told.
