Sustainable palm cooking oil goes on sale to Indonesian consumers | WPN World People News

Indonesian consumers, residents of the world’s largest palm oil producing nation and second biggest consuming market, can now buy sustainable palm oil for themselves.

WWF has welcomed the introduction this week by global retailing giant Carrefour of “Ecoplanet Cooking Oil”, as it is the first consumer product to be labeled with the trademark of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Indonesia.

Indonesia is the world’s second largest consumer of palm oil after India, with consumption of 7.2 million tonnes annually, with cooking oil accounting for around 80% of the total. Indonesia overtook Malaysia as the world’s largest palm oil producer in 2007, and produced over 25 million tonnes in 2011.

Palm fruit, Musim Mas palm oil plantation, Sumatra, Indonesia.

Concern that rocketing palm oil plantation establishment was pushing up deforestation rates, threatening tiger, elephant and orangutan habitat, displacing forest communities and contributing to massive greenhouse gas emissions through the exploitation of peat soils in the region led WWF and other partners to form the RSPO in 2005. A multi-stakeholder initiative devoted to transforming the palm oil business to one that is sustainable, the RSPO has developed a set of strict environmental and social standards that ensure that palm oil can be produced without harming people or the planet.

Source: World Wildlife Fund