Saturday 25 July 2009

Waitrose and palm oil

For those not based in the UK, Waitrose are a very large and highly regarded chain of 'up-market' supermarkets.

These two emails below were received by a supporter.

You might want to check out Greenpalms web site.


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Thank you for your e-mail response.


GreenPalm allows palm oil grown sustainably and certified as such via the RSPO’s certification scheme to be supported by consumers. It is a book and claim concept whereby the certificates and the actual oil are traded separately. The Greenpalm approach removes the need for a segregated supply chain, while allowing palm oil buyers to support the objectives of the RSPO by buying the certificates via its web-based trading platform.


More information is available on greenpalm http://www.greenpalm.org/site/

Regards,


Waitrose Customer Service.


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reply to first enquiry


Thank you for your e-mail.


We joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Jan '06.

Working with other members of the RSPO, we have been helping to devise systems to trace palm oil back to the plantation. These systems must be in place before palm oil certified as sustainable can be purchased in any quantity, and we are extremely keen for this to be achieved so that we can buy fully certified palm oil for all our food.

In the mean-time, we are trialling 'Greenpalm' with one of our suppliers.


And we continue to implement our own robust sustainable palm oil policy, which includes such measures as ensuring palm oil in our products is labelled as such, rather than 'blended vegetable oils', and working with our suppliers to engage with the RSPO.


I hope that this information will be of assistance.


Regards,

Waitrose Customer Service.