Mondelez is challenging palm oil suppliers to step up their game so it can move towards using physical suppliers of purely sustainable palm oil for all its products.
Jonathan Horrell, Sustainability Director for Mondelez International, which uses palm oil in a range of biscuit and confectionary products, explained what this would mean for suppliers: Really the objective we have is to move from this position where we have RSPO coverage, but some of it with certificates, to a point where we are able to say our physical supply of oil is produced under sustainable conditions. In the conversations we have had with our suppliers in recent months, two real things have come through. First, we need to improve traceability at least to the point of the first processing mill. Therefore we are laying down a milestone to say that by the end of 2015 we need all of our suppliers oil to be traceable to the origin mill. Second, Mondelez was seeking to establish stronger, more robust publicly published policies ensuring palm oil traded had been produced under sustainable conditions.
Jonathan added the message to suppliers would therefore be: We shall also require you by the end of 2015 to have published policies and implementation timelines out there so that we can be sure that these sustainable conditions are really being adopted.
At the end of 2013, Mondelez reached a point where all the palm oil it used was either itself guaranteed sustainable by the RSPO, or covered by the purchase of RSPO-recognised certificates. Cash used to buy such certificates goes directly to support sustainable palm oil production.
Mondelez brands include Philadelphia cheese spread, Lu biscuits, Kenco coffee and Cadbury chocolate.