Palm oil
Found in a wide range of foods and consumer products, palm oil is one of the world’s most versatile and affordable vegetable oils.
Its rapid expansion in recent decades however has given rise to significant concerns around deforestation, biodiversity loss, indigenous rights and labour conditions.
We do not operate any oil palm plantations or mills. With only one refinery in India, our main role is as a trader and refiner, servicing markets in China and India. That said, we recognise we have a part to play in building a more sustainable palm oil sector.
We endorse the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and its mission to build a sustainable palm supply chain with transparency and traceability. All our palm oil suppliers are subject to our Supplier Code of Conduct and Sustainable Palm Oil Sourcing Policy, which outlines our supplier expectations around deforestation, peat development, labour exploitation and supply chain traceability. While we work in collaboration with our suppliers and other stakeholders to execute our Implementation Plan 2022-2023 and publicly report on implementation progress in our annual sustainability reports, we are developing a new implementation plan that will cover our priorities for 2024-2025 and continue taking part in the Palm Oil Collaboration Group to collectively address sector challenges.
Understanding our supply chain
Working with our partner Proforest, we are progressing the traceability of palm oil supply to mill level and building a clearer environmental and social profile of our palm oil supply chain and an improved understanding of the progress in implementing ‘no deforestation, no peat development and no exploitation’ (NDPE) commitments in our supply chain, particularly through the Implementation Reporting Framework (IRF). With this information, we will identify potential hotspots and prioritize our supplier engagement and compliance verification with our Policy. Please see our supplying mill lists and IRF profiles below.
We provide channels for stakeholders to lodge grievances related to palm oil supply chain sustainability. For further details, refer to our Palm Oil Grievance Procedure.
