Nestlé makes palm oil sustainability pledge

Food giant Nestlé has said its concerns about deforestation mean it will cut ties with any of its palm oils suppliers that cannot meet certain sustainability criteria.


The world’s biggest food company has now gone on the offensive after criticism from NGOs including Greenpeace about its policy on palm oil procurement.

It announced this week that it would identify those who did not meet its sustainability standards and would not be buying from them until they could prove that the situation had improved.

Greenpeace has been running a campaign encouraging consumers to contact Nestlé, calling for an end in the use of palm oil from ‘companies that destroy the rainforest’.

“Since we launched our campaign just eight weeks ago, Greenpeace campaigners have met several times with Nestlé executives to discuss the problems with sourcing of palm oil and paper products,” said a statement from the pressure group.

“It certainly seemed like things were moving forward in these discussions. But we didn’t expect Nestlé to come up with such a comprehensive ‘zero deforestation’ policy so quickly.”

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