Palm oil plantations have been long associated with the unsustainability issue. The debate brought global leaders to establish the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in 2004 to set the sustainable palm oil standards. Unfortunately, palm oil remains questioned or partially banned especially in the sustainability-aware countries. This paper aims to determine the role of RSPO participation in the company's decision to export and develop palm oil downstream industry. Secondary data from 18 Indonesian and 32 Malaysian palm oil companies' annual reports are employed and analyzed using binary logistic regression. This study found that RSPO-certified and larger firms are more likely to be exporters. Contrarily, the RSPO certificate was found to be insignificant in affecting downstream development in this study. It can be concluded that the RSPO certificate is still beneficial to support palm oil export, especially in maintaining the company's good image towards its sustainability initiative.
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