UK/GERMANY: Nestle faces protests over palm oil

Environmental campaigners in the UK and Germany today (17 March) targeted Nestle for its use of palm oil in flagship chocolate brand Kit Kat.

Protestors from pressure group Greenpeace headed to Nestle sites in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands to highlight the world's largest food maker's relationship with Indonesian palm oil producer Sinar Mas.

Nestle is the latest company to find itself in the spotlight over its links to Sinar Mas. Greenpeace has previously targeted Unilever and Kraft Foods for sourcing palm oil from Sinar Mas, a company that the campaigners claim contributes to the destruction of Indonesian rainforests.

Greenpeace claimed its pressure led to Kraft and Unilever severing their ties with Sinar Mas and the actvists said Nestle should follow their rivals in ending links with a company that endangers wildlife in the region.

"Every time you take a bite out of a Kit Kat, you may be taking a bite out of Indonesia’s rainforests, which are critical for the orang-utan’s survival. Nestlé needs to give the orang-utan a break and stop using palm oil from suppliers that are destroying the rainforests,” said Daniela Montalto, Greenpeace International campaigner.

Nestle insisted it "shared the deep concern" over the threat palm oil plantations have on rainforests in Asia and pointed to its recent commitment to move to "certified sustainable palm oil" by 2015.

"Specifically, Nestlé has replaced the Indonesian company Sinar Mas as a supplier of palm oil with another supplier for further shipments," the company said.

"We confirm that Nestlé has only bought from Sinar Mas for manufacturing in Indonesia, and no palm oil bought from Sinar Mas has been used by Nestlé for manufacturing in any other country."

However, the Swiss food giant said its suppliers could not guarantee that palm oil from a particular company would be excluded due to "the mingling of palm oil in a very complex supply chain".

Nestle said: "We will continue to pressure our suppliers to eliminate any sources of palm oil which are related to rainforest destruction and to provide valid guarantees of traceability as quickly as possible. We will not portray palm oil as free of such oils unless such guarantees are clear and reliable."