Global agribusiness giant Cargill has announced it will stop offering conventional palm oil as part of its portfolio in the USA.
As of October, the company said its US operations would only offer palm oil certified by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
The move reflected increasing consumer and customer demand for more sustainably-sourced ingredients, Cargill said on 12 October.
“Companies like Cargill are playing a vital role in enabling RSPO members, and other companies in North America, to continue to achieve their ambitious targets of sourcing and manufacturing products that are 100% RSPO certified. Our hope is that North America will become a market where 100% of products are RSPO certified,” RSPO head of North America Cameron Plese said.
Cargill has supplied RSPO-certified palm oil since 2005, and in December 2020, converted its Charlotte refinery, in North Carolina, to 100% segregated palm oil.
Following the company’s latest move, by January 2024, all customers buying palm oil from one of Cargill’s US refineries could be assured they were purchasing RSPO-certified palm oil, sourced from either mass balance or segregated supply chains.
“[The] announcement brings us one step closer to our goal of having a fully transparent, traceable and sustainable palm oil supply chain,” Cargill commercial leader for edible oils North America Reid Kinde said.
Cargill said it had invested US$200M in a new palm oil refinery in Lampung, Indonesia to ensure RSPO-certified palm oil supplies.
The Lampung refinery sourced palm oil directly from Cargill-owned plantations and mills and selected third-party mills which were compliant with its policy on sustainability, the company said.
