Nestle, Unilever 'must be fair to Indonesian palm oil

JAKARTA: Indonesian asked Nestle S.A. and Unilever N.V. to use the proper channel in addressing any environmental issues with regards to palm oil from the country, the world's largest producer. Nestle replaced Sinar Mas Group with an unidentified palm oil supplier after Greenpeace called on the world's largest food maker to cut ties with the Indonesian company, the Vevey, Switzerland-based company said in an emailed statement Wednesday. Greenpeace published a report Wednesday saying Sinar Mas has unlawfully destroyed rain forests to set up palm oil plantations. Greenpeace wrote to Nestle saying it has "evidence that Sinar Mas is breaking Indonesian law" and ignoring international environmental commitments, the environmentalist group said on its website. "it's not fair if major companies such as Nestle and Unilever dropped supplies from Indonesian producers just based on one report," Fadhil Hasan, executive director at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, or Gapki, said in Jakarta on Thursday. "They should've re-veryfied the report and gone through a mechanism in the RSPO before making such a decision," he said, referring to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a trade body of producers and buyers. Unilever, the world's second biggest food maker, suspended deliveries from Sinar Mas, the Jakarta-based plantation owner and palm oil producers, three months ago.


The jakarta pos, march 19, 2010