Unilever calls for Asia to support green palm oil

A consumer goods firm has said palm oil buyers in India and China should sign up for a certification scheme to promote sustainable palm oil.

Unilever, the world’s top palm oil buyer and a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil – a group that seeks to promote better sourcing of the material – announced in April that this year it would double its purchases of palm oil production certified as sustainable.

The company now want Asian buyers of palm oil to join European firms in singing up for the scheme.

However, global demand for sustainable palm oil, often the more expensive option, has remained weak.

“We need to increase the uptake of certified oil in the market,” Jan Kees Vis, global director for sustainable sourcing development at Unilever, told Reuters.

“We know that the demand from Europe is not enough.”

“Global production is about 45m tonnes – India takes 8m tonnes, China 7m tonnes, Europe about 6m tonnes, United States and Egypt 1m tonnes.

“There is more production at the moment than there is demand and if that continues, the incentive for more growers to get certified will diminish,” Vis said. “We need to get the Indian and the Chinese market involved, which is difficult to do.”

The revelations follow announcements last year from Unilever and fellow food giants Kraft, saying that they have suspended purchases from Indonesian supplier Sinar Mas based on concerns over deforestation.