27/10/2009 (2sustain.com) - Following a detailed review of its palm oil supply chain, Nestle announced yesterday that it is committed to using only Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) by 2015, when sufficient quantities are expected to be available.

Nestle does not use crude palm oil. However, the company does use palm kernel oil for some of its confectionery and dairy products, and it also buys processed palm oil and processed oil mixes which often come from multiple sources. All told, Nestle estimates it uses about 320,000 metric tonnes of palm oil, which amounts to a mere 0.7% of the global supply.

Even so, as the largest food company in the world, Nestle plays an important role in promoting the growth and use of sustainable palm oil, and I applaud their commitment to CSPO. Over the last few years, the company has been closely associated with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international non-profit that is uniting stakeholders from throughout the palm oil industry to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.