Gaining momentum in Europe 

Dear sustainable palm oil friends, colleagues, and partners,

Facing an even more challenging Omicron strain, we cannot imagine anyone that was not impacted by the effect of the global pandemic. In face of its devastating effects, the push for solid sustainable transition to address climate change has become more and more apparent. It has become clear that we need to make our agriculture more resilient to feed future generations, to lower our impact on the environment and to restore the balance in our forest and wildlife reserves.

More than 100 governments have pledged to end deforestation by 2030 at the 26th annual United Nations Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow and world leaders and leading industry organizations around the globe are prioritizing to make this commitment become a reality. In the light of the pandemic, social inequalities have been aggravated in countries with less stable economic infrastructure, highlighting the importance of economic resilience and good agricultural practices.

Sustainable palm oil is gaining momentum in Europe. We are proud to report that in 2020, 90% of the import of palm oil for food, feed and oleochemicals was certified sustainable in Europe. And while for most stakeholders, it is apparent that sustainable palm oil can play an important role to achieving the UN SDGs, the complexity of addressing global issues is often oversimplified.

This is repeatedly done by calling for a ban of palm oil altogether, which will not help fixing the actual issues. It is important to note that the continued negative media coverage of palm oil is resulting in a very bad perception of palm oil, which leads to global companies - key to transformation - shying away from the hot spots in the palm oil supply chain. The subsequent switch to other fats and oils, will make more use of available agricultural land for cultivation and will ultimately lead to more deforestation.

In Europe the push for more strict legislation to address deforestation and social issues in the supply chain has become even stronger during the pandemic. For palm oil, this comes with the risk of excluding the smallholders, the most vulnerable and critical, and responsible for approximately 40% of the total palm oil production. These smallholders depend on market access to be able to invest in and improve their agricultural practices. It has become apparent that while we need stricter regulation, governments, industry and civil society organizations will need to work together throughout the supply chain to improve sustainable practices, help create forest positive action, protect biodiversity and accelerate positive socio economic developments.

With our new EPOA strategy to formally create a frontrunner alliance on sustainable palm oil, we'll have an excellent opportunity in 2022: together with other frontrunners we will build on current market developments in sustainability and help create a world where palm oil is sustainably produced and valued for its versatility and excellent properties.

We thank all our members, partners and friends for their support in the last year and hope we are able to further strengthen our cooperation in the coming year for the benefit of sustainable palm oil.

We wish you a joyous holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year in which we can work together to make sustainable palm oil the norm.

Frans Claassen

Chair European Palm Oil Alliance