Friday 15 January 2010

Response from Tesco to a supporter

Dear

Thank you for your email addressed to Sir Terry Leahy, our Chief Executive. As Sir Terry is currently away from the office, I am responding on his behalf.

I can appreciate your concerns regarding the issue of palm oil and I am pleased to offer you the following information.

As full members of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) we are committed to using sustainable palm oil in our product range.

This year we have supported further improvements around the environmental standards in the RSPO to reduce the chances of deforestation and controls on CO2 emissions. We have also joined a coalition of over 50 UK-based companies calling on the industry to stop all deforestation of rainforest and peat forests for palm oil expansion.

We do not use palm oil in any of our products. Instead we use derivatives and, at present, the traceability and certification of the derivatives of palm oil are still in their infancy. The flow of certified palm oil to derivatives is going to take time.

We are working with our suppliers to ensure that we have a traceable and audited system in place so that we can get certified derivatives in our products. All our palm derivatives are already traceable to RSPO members and we have made a public commitment to use 100% sustainable palm oil in our products by 2015.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Kind Regards


Customer Service Executive