When IBD took the initiative to integrate the RSPO standard into ‘Group Integrity’, Organic Services was excited. The strategic idea behind this move is to make smallholder farmers a part of the international market, which they have difficulties to access. Two countries in Asia are dominating Palm Oil production, but their production is often heavily criticized for the social circumstances and environmental damage. Many farmers in Asia, Africa and Latin America are small-scale producers with palm oil trees integrated into a more diverse production pattern.

IBD is one of the largest certifiers in Latin America and certifies agricultural products against a wide range of sustainability standards such as for example organic, bio-dynamic and Fair-Trade standards. IBD operates in 20 countries, is accredited by international institutions such as ASI, IOAS, Demeter and IFOAM, and the only accredited certifier for RSPO in Brazil.

IBD decided to partner with Organic Services to offer its clients the ‘Group Integrity’ Software for the management of internal compliance against the RSPO standard as well as other sustainability standards. With this decision, IBD aims to deliver a solution to the challenges producer groups as well as companies face as they prepare audits, to deliver on any post-audits activities required for initial certification, and to successfully maintain their certification. We hope that the new users of the ‘Group Integrity’ tool will benefit from the improvements in capturing data and managing the certification work flow for maintained certification success.