Cargill collaborates with farmers, food makers and industrial customers to bring new ideas to the table.

Employees tend to young palm trees in nursery in Indonesia.

Sustainable and responsible palm oil

Cargill's global commitment on sustainable palm oil.
Cargill's global commitment on sustainable palm oil. We have committed the palm oil products we supply to Europe, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand will be RSPO certified by 2015; this will cover 100 percent of our products worldwide by 2020.

Millions of people around the world 
depend on palm oil

Produced from the oil palm tree, palm oil is the highest yielding oilseed crop and primarily grown in Indonesia and Malaysia, which together account for about 80 percent of the world’s production. Palm oil is the world’s most widely used and versatile vegetable oil.

Cargill owns and operates two palm plantations in Indonesia, as well as 12 palm oil refineries across the world which buy, refine, process, and market palm oil products from our own and other plantations.
 

Palm plantation.
World Wildlife Fund. In July 2010 we announced a collaboration with WWF to gauge progress amongst our Indonesian suppliers on implementing RSPO standards.
Committed to sustainable palm production

The increase in demand for palm oil has also meant an increase in demand for more farm and plantation land. This has raised environmental and social concerns including forest and habitat conservation, peat land conversion, the need to protect waterways and the rights of indigenous communities.

We believe that palm should be produced sustainably. At each of our plantations, and as part of our commitment to conserve natural resources and biodiversity, we integrate responsible development into our operational plans and policies. Together with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities, we monitor our impact on the environment and develop partnerships to conserve resources and biodiversity.

Explore the facets of sustainable and responsible palm oil

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)

  • We fully support the RSPO and the efforts of participants to establish and promote sustainable palm production. We have made significant progress on implementing the RSPO Principles and Criteria in our businesses and it is our hope that all oil palm plantations become RSPO certified.

Cargill’s response to allegations about PT SMART (Sinar Mas)

  • We are aware about the allegations made by Greenpeace about the Indonesian palm oil company, PT SMART (Sinar Mas). We are pleased the RSPO, PT SMART and Golden Agri-Resources have jointly agreed a way forward and we are encouraging PT SMART directly to show progress on these measures.

Supporting sustainable palm production

  • We are committed to sustainable production on our own palm plantations and we want to play our part to encourage the adoption of more sustainable production practices.We will not plant on high conservation value forests, not develop new plantations on peat land and we have a strict no burn policy for land preparation.

Protecting endangered animal species and natural habitats

  • We are committed to responsible environmental stewardship by ensuring sound environmental management on our own plantations to preserve biodiversity and protect populations and habitats of orangutans, the world’s largest butterfly as well as freshwater systems.

Palm and biofuels

  • High crude oil prices and government subsidies and policies have driven the increased global demand for using palm oil to create biofuels. We believe biofuels can play a role in meeting global energy needs but should be balanced with the critical needs of providing food for a growing global population.