FGV Holdings Berhad released a statement in late June contesting a petition to ban importation of its palm oil into the United States. Grant & Eisenhofer ESG, a U.S.-based plaintiff advocacy firm, called on the U.S. government to bar FGV imports due to alleged human rights and labour violations. The petition, filed on June 24, …
In 2017, Chain Reaction Research (CRR) reported 6.1 million hectares (ha) of forest and peatland remained on oil palm concessions, land that can be considered “stranded assets.” This update discusses figures and trends in the palm oil industry since 2017 and argues that oil palm development on forest and peatland will remain economically unviable for …
Many fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have publicly committed to a 2020 deadline to end deforestation in their supply chains. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that most FMCGs will not meet this deadline. NGO campaigns against individual FMCGs and benchmark studies that show the differences in implementation of zero-deforestation commitments indicate increasing reputation risks …
China’s meat industry is now facing major challenges with African swine fever poised to cut the country’s pig population by a third. The impact of this sharp decline will likely have widespread ramifications, including higher global meat prices and stronger Chinese imports from Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, where rising deforestation is being fueled by …
The Malaysian government announced on April 10, 2019 that the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) would be given a cash injection of RM 6.23 billion (USD 1.5 billion) to help ease its financial troubles. These financial issues could have a knock-on effect on FELDA’s Bursa Malaysia-listed commercial arm FGV Holdings Bhd, which has committed to …
Korindo Group, the private Indonesian palm oil, rubber and timber company, was suspended by multiple NDPE traders between 2016 and 2018 after evidence of deforestation and illegal burning on their concessions. Faced with restricted NDPE market access, the company is now looking at business opportunities in the regional biofuel market. Korindo is owned by the …
The family behind the Bewani Oil Palm Plantation (BOPPL), one of the largest deforesters in Southeast Asia, has divested from the plantation. This move raises fears of continued forest loss and the undermining of palm oil traders’ efforts to eliminate deforestation-linked palm oil throughout supply chains. BOPPL is a 139,909-hectare (ha) plantation in Papua New …
The withdrawal of Indofood from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and the subsequent suspensions of its subsidiaries signal a possible expanding gap between the NDPE market and the leakage market. On February 28, 2019, the RSPO suspended palm oil producer PT Salim Ivomas Pratama Tbk (SIMP), a subsidiary of Indofood’s palm oil unit …
A group of U.S. Senators recently sent letters on February 4, 2019 to investors and asset managers urging them to take into account deforestation risks in their portfolios. The Senators, led by Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, asked the financial actors to commit to pressuring companies in agricultural supply chains that do not adequately address …
COFCO, a major Chinese company active in agricultural markets, released a statement in late January at the World Economic Form (WEF) in support of shoring up “sustainable” practices and curbing deforestation in commodity supply chains. COFCO’s CEO, Jun Lyu, warned industry that failure to curb climate change could lead to poor crop production and limit …
