Retailers shun sustainable palm oil

Despite a number of high-profile commitments to increase the use of sustainable palm oil, only one per cent of the sustainably certified palm oil available on the market today has been bought, according to figures released today by the WWF.

Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) has been available since November 2008 and provides assurance that tropical forests have not been cleared during its production. But many retailers are shunning palm oil from sustainably certified plantations as it is up to €60 a tonne more expensive - a premium of over 10 per cent on uncertified palm oil.

In a bid to boost demand for certified palm oil, WWF announced today that it will assess the world's major users of palm oil over the next six months and publish a Palm Oil Buyer's Scorecard highlighting those companies that support sustainable palm oil and exposing those that have not fulfilled their commitments to source the oil from environmentally sustainable plantations.

Rodney Taylor, director of WWF International's Forests Programme, said that to date only 15,000 of the 1.3 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil available has been sold.

"This sluggish demand from palm oil buyers, such as supermarkets, food and cosmetic manufacturers, could undermine the success of the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) and threatens the remaining natural tropical forests of Southeast Asia, as well as other forests where oil palm is set to expand, such as the Amazon," he said.

The NGO reserved praise for Sainsbury's, which was among the first retailer to buy certified sustainable palm oil. The company has used 450 tonnes this year and has pledged to launch more own-brand products containing certified oil this year as it moves towards meeting its goal of only using certified oil in its products by 2014.

Adam Harrison, senior policy officer for food and agriculture at WWF-UK, said the aim of the new scorecard is to increase pressure on other retailers to commit to buying sustainable palm oil.

"WWF applauds the leadership of companies such as Sainsbury's, which have backed up their public commitment with action. And when the scorecard is published, we hope to see even more significant purchases from more companies," he said.

The NGO warned that unless more firms commit publicly to purchasing certified palm oil, the RSPO will struggle to encourage suppliers to have their plantations certified.