FrieslandCampina Kievit Commits to Get Certification on Sustainable Palm Oil

FrieslandCampina Kievit made this decision in the context of FrieslandCampinas sustainability policy and in this way hopes to contribute to increasingly sustainable solutions for the production of agrarian raw materials while promoting the conservation of tropical rain forests and biodiversity.

23 Nov 2010 --- FrieslandCampina Kievit claims to be the first supplier of palm oil based spray-dried powders, which applies for an audit to get certified according to the rules and regulations of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil(RSPO).

FrieslandCampina Kievit made this decision in the context of FrieslandCampinas sustainability policy and in this way hopes to contribute to increasingly sustainable solutions for the production of agrarian raw materials while promoting the conservation of tropical rain forests and biodiversity.

Besides achieving own sustainability targets, FrieslandCampina Kievit considers it also of key importance to provide their customers with the opportunity to fullfil their own sustainability targets. FrieslandCampina Kievit aims to have the audit completed before end 2010.

Certified sustainable palm oil is palm oil that is certified according to the principles and criteria of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The palm oil is treated according to one of the three trading systems approved by the RSPO: segregation , mass balance or book & claim . Social organisations such as Solidaridad and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) were closely involved in preparing these sustainability criteria. FrieslandCampina has been affiliated with the RSPO since 2007.

Under the segregation model, the palm oil is guaranteed to originate from approved and certified plantations. For palm oil plantation owners this means, among other things, an embargo on deforestation of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia and expropriation of land. Furthermore, the processing and transport of this palm oil is also guaranteed to be separated from unsustainably produced oil.

Not all palm oil products such as palm fractions and palm kernel oil are yet available from RSPO certified plantations in a segregated form. These products are purchased according to the so-called mass balance system. This is a combination of sustainably produced palm oil products and non-certified products that are administratively monitored.

To compensate for the use of palm oil products that are still only available from conventional plantations, sustainability certificates will be purchased according to the book & claim system as applies to green energy as well.