2 out of 3 Singaporean brands are shady about their usage of unsustainable palm oil: WWF

An area of Palangkaraya that was deliberately burned to clear land for palm oil plantations in 2015. Photo: Alexander Hotz / Coconuts Media
An area of Palangkaraya that was deliberately burned to clear land for palm oil plantations in 2015. Photo: Alexander Hotz / Coconuts Media

It’s no secret that countries in Asia are huge consumers of palm oil — especially so for Singapore, which hosts the world’s biggest palm oil-based diesel plant.

This is something we should be disturbed about, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Unsustainable practices in the palm oil industry give rise to indiscriminate deforestation, displacement of local communities and wildlife habitats and, of course, transboundary haze. High global demand has accelerated the production of palm oil across Southeast Asia, giving rise to undesirable environmental impacts, said WWF.

The latest finding by WWF shows that a major portion of Singaporean brands contacted by the organization are simply not transparent at all about their palm oil sourcing. In fact, 17 of the 27 homegrown companies contacted — including Breadtalk Group, Crystal Jade Culinary Concepts Holding, Khong Guan Biscuit Factory and more — did not respond when questioned.

The ones who did reply to WWF weren’t too keen about using sustainable palm oil, citing reasons such as lack of demand by customers, the high costs and having no internal capacity to switch to it.

Things don’t look totally bleak though. Three companies have already started the journey to consider procuring sustainable palm oil (Tat Hui Foods, F&N, and Lam Soon Singapore), while one is well on the path towards achieving the goal (NTUC Fairprice). Wildlife Reserves Singapore and Denis Asia Pacific (which owns Ayam Brand) scored very well, and both are considered to be leading the way in showing transparency and committing to utilizing sustainable palm oil.

Photo: WWF

WWF Singapore has since launched a campaign in a bid to get consumers to voice out their disapproval of using unsustainable palm oil — by spamming emails to the CEO and Senior Management teams of the 17 non-respondent companies. No, really, check out palmoil.sg to find out more.



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