TRADEMARK FOR SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL NOW ADOPTED IN MORE THAN 20 COUNTRIES AROUND THE GLOBE

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The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil launches a consumer website in conjunction with the Trademark’s 2nd anniversary
 
Kuala Lumpur, 5 June 2013 – Today, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) celebrates the second anniversary of its Trademark which is used on product packaging to highlight the presence of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) and help consumers make an informed choice. So far, the RSPO has issued 121 RSPO Trademark licenses to companies from 24 countries. The Trademark has gained traction in Europe and the US. Looking at the future, RSPO will focus its efforts on further leveraging the Trademark in China and India – the world’s two biggest consumer markets of palm oil.

In conjunction with this anniversary, the RSPO has launched a new website www.betterpalmoil.org, to inform consumers about products containing certified sustainable palm oil, and to explain the crucial role which consumers can play in promoting the production and use of CSPO.

The new website provides consumers with information on the products containing CSPO and the value of the Trademark. Many well-known brands from all over the world – such as L’Occitane, The Body Shop, Jordans, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Carrefour, NutroPalm, Carotina, New Britain and Menz Choc Honeycomb – are making the move to adopt CSPO and are using the RSPO Trademark to demonstrate this.

Through the purchase of products carrying the RSPO Trademark, consumers are able to contribute to the protection of the environment, the fight against deforestation and the improvement of the livelihood of indigenous communities in palm oil producing countries.

Increasing the awareness of sustainable palm oil amongst consumers through the RSPO Trademark is instrumental in increasing the uptake of CSPO in key markets. Currently, 52% of CSPO produced is being sold – the remaining part is sold as conventional palm oil. It is RSPO’s key priority to increase the level of market uptake and consumer pressure will play a big part in this.

Darrel Webber, Secretary General of the RSPO: “By involving consumers and encouraging greater cooperation in the supply chain, RSPO aims to align supply and demand in order to ensure that sustainable palm oil becomes mainstream. The palm oil supply chain is complex and the different parties in the chain need to come together to ensure the market switches to CSPO. Consumer purchasing power plays a critical part because they can motivate the entire industry to embrace CSPO.”

Palm oil is a highly efficient crop and a key ingredient in many of the products on supermarket shelves – it is used in more than half of all packaged foods and in many other non-food items. As consumers become increasingly aware of the ingredients used in their products, it is essential they receive reliable and objective information and understand the impact these ingredients have on the environment and living standards in producing countries. To help consumers identify products that contain CSPO the RSPO Trademark was launched on the market in June 2011.

The RSPO Trademark is not only used by consumer brands: zoos from all over the world are using the Trademark to raise awareness for sustainability issues amongst its visitors. Victoria Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, and Rotterdam Zoo are carrying out initiatives with consumers to educate them about how CSPO contributes to the protection of endangered species.

Note to Editors:

Number of RSPO Trademark licensees per country

15% of world's palm oil production is now RSPO certified
The current estimated annual production capacity of RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil is 8.2 million metric tonnes, approximately 15% of global palm oil production. Spread over 2.2 million hectares of certified area, about 48.2% of the world's current RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil production capacity comes from Indonesia, followed by 43.9% from Malaysia, and the remaining 7.9% from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Cambodia, Brazil, Colombia and Ivory Coast.

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About RSPO

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably-produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with a satellite office in Jakarta.

RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry – oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs – to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.

Such multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Executive Board and project-level Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group to bring group-specific agendas to the roundtable, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders and business competitors to work together towards a common objective and make decisions by consensus.

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