Cargill to delist palm oil supplier Sinar Mas

Cargill is keenly aware about the allegations made in December 2009 by Greenpeace about illegal forest clearance and the Indonesian palm oil company, Sinar Mas.

 

“We are committed to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) process of working towards sustainable palm production and therefore take this issue very seriously”, the company said on their website.

 

Cargill has contacted Sinar Mas’s senior management and asked them to address the issues in the Greenpeace report.

 

Also on the initiative of Cargill the RSPO Secretariat asked Sinar Mas to respond on the allegations in the Greenpeace report.

 

If the RSPO validates the allegations of improper land conversion or illegal planting in deep peat land as alleged in the Greenpeace report and Sinar Mas does not take corrective action, Cargill will delist the palm oil producer as a supplier.

 

Top European palm oil buyers such as Unilever and Nestlé have already said they would stop buying palm oil from Sinar Mas after Greenpeace released a report about forest clearing and Sinar Mas.

 

Sinar Mas, owned by the Widjaja family, controls Jakarta-listed PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology Tbk, known as SMART, and Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources.

 

Aside from its palm oil interests, it has pulp and paper, finance, and property businesses in Asia.