Palm Oil Fact Sheet:
Q. What is Palm Oil?
A. There are two types of oil gained from the oil palm tree, Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil
Palm oil is gained by crushing and extracting the oil from the fruit of the oil palm tree.
Palm kernel oil is obtained by crushing and extracting the oil from the seed or kernel of the palm oil fruit.
There are two species of Oil Palm and both grow in the tropics Elaeis guineensis and Elaeis oleifer.
Q. What kind of grocery products is palm oil used in?
A. Palm oil is present in 50% of the packaged products on our shelves. Palm oil is used in baked products such bread, biscuits; Fried products like chips; Confectionery like chocolates and cosmetics like shampoo.
Q. Where is palm oil produced?
A. Oil palms trees grow in the tropics and although originally native to West Africa and South America, they have been introduced to Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia including New Guinea. 85% of the palm oil produced comes from Malaysia and Indonesia.
Q. How is palm oil produced?
A. Oil palm is an agricultural crop that grows in plantations; a mature oil palm tree will produce palm fruit. It is from this fruit that the palm oil and palm kernel oil is crushed and extracted.
Q. How much land/forest is cleared every year for oil palm plantations?
A. It has been suggested that up to 300 football fields of forest are cleared every hour. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) acknowledges that in Malaysia and Indonesia the main driver for this rainforest destruction is to convert the land from forest to oil palm plantations.
Yet, there are approximately 300-700 million hectares of abandoned land globally that can potentially be used for oil palm plantations, 20 million hectares in Indonesia alone.
Q. How many people work in the palm oil industry?
A. The palm oil industry is a large industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, the World Bank and Asia Development Bank stated that the Malaysian palm oil industry currently employs 570,000 people with export earnings of more than RM68billion per year, approximately $22billion Australian Dollars
Q. Are there any alternatives to unsustainable palm oil?
A. Yes, CSPO!
Certified Sustainable Palm Oil or CSPO is palm oil that has been produced by plantations that have been well-managed with good environmental, social and economic standards. For example, CSPO must be sourced from plantations that were established on land cleared before 2005. In other words, by buying CSPO, major users of palm oil can avoid contributing to the ongoing destruction of forests in Southeast Asia.
Q. Will changing to the production of CSPO affect the industry and economy of the countries where palm oil is produced?
A. No, we estimate that there are already 20 million hectares of idle - or abandoned - land in Indonesia alone. This land, formerly forested then logged and not regenerated is mostly suitable for oil palm plantations. Expanding the Oil Palm industry can continue by directing plantings on this idle land.
Q. Is there any additional cost to producing CSPO?
A. There can be an initial cost to the producer in getting their plantation up to the standard required to be able to be certified by the RSPO so that they can then 'officially' produce CSPO. An incentive for the producer to become certified is that they may be able to cover the cost of improving their practices by charging a small premium on the CSPO they produce at sale.
Q. Is there any additional cost to the shopper in buying groceries that use sustainable palm oil?
A. There shouldn’t be. Whilst there is a cost to producers to be certified, this cost is relatively low, and should have little or no impact on the final cost of the consumer product.
Q. How much of the palm oil produced globally is CSPO?
A. In 2009, 4% or 1.75 million tonnes of palm oil produced was CSPO. This is a good start, considering CSPO only entered the market in 2009
Q. How much CSPO have companies and retailers purchased?
A. To date, only 20% of the CSPO produced has been bought by manufacturers and retailers. WWF wants to improve this by getting responsible companies to buy CSPO. WWF believe that as consumers and companies demand more CSPO this will encourage more producers to have their plantations certified and halt the current unsustainable destruction of our rainforests.
Q. Who is the governing body or association on producing CSPO?
A. Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil or RSPO is a not-for-profit association of the palm oil industry with stakeholders from all sectors of the industry involved including environmental and social NGOs such as WWF and Oxfam, oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors.
Q. What is the criteria required to qualify as a CSPO producer?
A. RSPO has created a set of Principles and Criteria (P&Cs) that set environmental, social and economic standards that a plantation should meet in order to be certified and be recognised as a producer of CSPO.
Q. What is WWFs goal in encouraging the production and use of CSPO?
A. To ensure that 25% of global palm oil production is from certified, sustainable sources by 2012.
To get a public commitment from the Australian manufactuers and retailers using palm oil that they will move to 100% CSPO by 2015.
Q. How do I know if my product contains sustainable palm oil?
A. The simple answer at the moment is... you don't!
To find out you should contact the company who made your product and ask them if they are using CSPO. You should also request that your local Member support the Food Standards Amendment - it is the Truth in Labelling Bill 2009 which is currently in the senate. This bill, if passed, will mandate that a product containing CSPO be labelled as CS Palm Oil in the ingredients list.
