Sourcing Spotlight: Taking a Closer Look at Palm Oil

When you hear the words ‘palm oil’, it’s likely that the first image that comes to mind is an orangutan. You’ve likely heard that palm oil is unsustainable, closely linked to deforestation and monocultural plantations that represent a challenge for regional biodiversity. While this is certainly true of the majority of highly processed palm oil used worldwide, the complete story is more nuanced; today’s palm oil industry is a world away from this food’s roots in West African community, culture and traditional agricultural systems. The ‘all or nothing’ tone of sustainability conversations can often end up demonising foods, but it’s important to understand where the issues actually lie and to take cultural context into account.  

The oil palm in West African culture 

Native to West Africa, the oil palm is important in West and Central African culture and cuisine, featuring in many heritage recipes. This relationship is a longstanding one; archaeological evidence has shown that palm fruit and oil already formed an integral part of West African diets 5,000 years ago. Here, oil palms are typically grown by local, Indigenous, small-scale farmers, and production is often managed by community groups working with small batches.  

The flesh of the fruit is cooked and eaten itself and also used to make red oil, a valued ingredient in many traditional recipes. “Like cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, unrefined red palm oil is minimally processed, retaining a lot of the character of the palm nuts (and I daresay the nutrients),” says Ozoz Sokoh, a Nigerian food explorer and educator whose work documents and celebrates West African cuisine, most recently in her debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria. Ozoz is a Professor of Food and Tourism Studies at Centennial College in Toronto, part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation in Ontario, Canada. “Unrefined red palm oil brings colour, flavour and taste memories to my dishes, especially traditional West African soups, stews and sauces. I consider it the taste of Nigerian cooking: floral and smoky with hints of acidity, it brings life to Nigerian cooking pots.” The kernels found within the fruit are also pressed to extract oil for cooking.  

Besides its significance in the kitchen, the oil palm plays roles in other parts of daily life, from medicine and skincare to birth rituals. “In some Nigerian cultures, babies are given a taste of unrefined red palm oil a few days after they're born, as part of their naming ceremonies,” says Ozoz. 

So where did things go wrong? 

When European demand for palm oil first skyrocketed in the first half of the 19th century (driven by its potential as a highly effective emulsifier in all sorts of contexts), production was still tied to its native West Africa. While the economic and social impacts on local populations varied over the decades, there was an abundance of wild oil palm there to be harvested, meaning that the region avoided any “large-scale, radical transformation in land management, ownership or ecology”. 

Dutch colonisers brought the oil palm to South-East Asia in 1848, planting seedlings in Java, Indonesia. The soil and climate here proved particularly suitable, and the new generation of oil palms began to grow more quickly, with larger kernels — which could yield more oil.  

Driven in part by the Industrial Revolution, this palm kernel oil — again, a separate product to the red oil beloved by West African cultures, and produced in very different ways — became an extremely valuable commodity. With the invention of hydrogenation in the early 1900s, it was possible to make the oil more stable and give it a longer shelf life, better suited to shipping long distances. Soon, palm oil was used as an industrial lubricant and began to feature in everything from street lighting to soap. 

In the years since, the mass production driven by this demand has caused serious environmental and social harm. Vast expanses of South-East Asian forest have been cleared, with many Indigenous communities displaced as a result. Today, Indonesia and Malaysia remain at the centre of global palm oil production, and plantations have replaced much of the region’s native forests. Commercially produced palm kernel oil has gradually found its way into an incredible array of products, a frequent feature in everything from ice cream and baked goods to mayonnaise and snacks — and not just foods, but cosmetics, soaps and shampoos, cleaning products and more.  

The problems with palm oil 

To learn more about the negative impacts of palm kernel oil and how hospitality can best navigate this, we spoke to Fay Richards, Senior Specialist, Strategic Communications, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The RSPO develops global standards relating to palm oil, which are designed to address risks wherever they occur.  

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

Palm oil plantations are expanding more rapidly than almost any other agricultural commodity, and clearing space for plantations has destroyed vast swathes of rainforest in South-East Asia; these are important habitats for native animals like orangutans, elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, driving them towards extinction and causing serious damage to local biodiversity and ecosystems. Meanwhile, felling and burning native trees contributes to the climate crisis. 
 

“One of the most urgent issues facing palm oil producing countries is deforestation and the protection of peatlands, as well as the associated destruction of biodiversity,” says Fay. “This has been a key area of focus and discussion for RSPO and its stakeholders. The 2018 RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) for growers include No Deforestation, No Fire and No New Planting on Peat.” 

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS

The palm kernel oil industry has also resulted in serious impacts on lives and livelihoods, especially for local and Indigenous communities. Many of these communities have been forcefully removed from their ancestral lands.  

The palm oil industry also perpetuates massive human and labour rights violations, with child labour, forced labour, gender discrimination, long hours, low pay, dangerous working conditions and other forms of worker exploitation common occurrences on plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Why does this matter for hospitality? 

From foods to cleaning products, the hospitality industry wields significant purchasing power, making it essential that we pay attention to where palm oil enters our supply chains. It’s often tricky to identify from the label. “Palm oil is present in many everyday items and can appear under different names: olein, stearin, fatty acids and many more,” says Fay. “For hotels, particularly, there are countless items that could contain palm oil.” These include cooking oil, breakfast items not made in-house (like pastries), packaged foods stocked in vending machines, cleaning products, and bedroom toiletries. 

How can I make sure my business ISN'T contributing to the problem? 

BOYCOTTING IS NOT THE ANSWER

Because of the negative impacts of palm oil cultivation and business practices, there have been calls to boycott palm oil entirely — but Fay says this is not the answer. “Switching to alternative vegetable oils wouldn’t reduce these impacts: sunflower, rapeseed and soy have much lower yields per hectare than oil palm, so more land would be needed to produce an equivalent amount of oil. What’s more, millions of farmers and their families around the world make a living on oil palm plantations and smallholdings; this provides them with the income for basic essentials such as food, clean water, housing and education.”  

Instead, focus on ways to increase transparency throughout your supply chain, ensuring that the palm oil you buy is from reputable sources. Certified sustainable palm oil has been produced in plantations that are developed and managed according to robust environmental, social and economic standards. By buying palm oil from these sources only, we can help to shape the industry for the better.  

TALK TO YOUR SUPPLIERS

Businesses should prioritise sourcing from producers that are demonstrably committed to sustainable and responsible practices, so engaging with your suppliers is crucial. Education is a good first step. “Learning more about the regions of production and production methods can help chefs and hospitality businesses ask the right questions,” says Ozoz.  

Information on RSPO Members and Supply Chain Certified companies is publicly available on the RSPO website. “In this sector, wholesalers, traders and distributors play an important role, often being the link between producers and hotel chains,” says Fay. “Distributors and wholesalers take legal and physical ownership, store and sell products to their customer bases, but do not unpack, repack or relabel those products at any stage. They have a vital role to play in maintaining the integrity of the RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil supply chain. They ensure that RSPO-certified products are kept separate and are never mixed with mainstream, non-certified material.” 

LOOK FOR SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS

Past RSPO certification, Fay points to other standards that have integrated sustainable sourcing within their own criteria. “For example, the EU Ecolabel criteria for detergents and cosmetics (widely used in the hospitality industry) include some that specifically address the sustainable sourcing of palm oil, palm kernel oil, and their derivatives. These criteria require that these raw materials are sourced from plantations that meet the requirements of a sustainable production certification scheme, such as the RSPO or an equivalent or stricter scheme. This makes it easier for hotel chains to address palm oil sourcing when selecting suppliers.” 

SHARE YOUR SOURCING STORY

As with any of your sustainability work, there is an opportunity to create a wider impact through communications. Set measurable, time-driven targets to source palm oil solely in sustainable ways, and track your progress transparently. Share this with your customers, staff and stakeholders, helping to raise awareness and drive further change across the sector. 

CONTACT THE EXPERTS

For further information, contact the RSPO. “The RSPO stands ready to support any business in understanding its role in the supply chain and to welcome more hospitality businesses to our global movement to make palm oil sustainable,” says Fay. 

WHEN IT COMES TO RED PALM OIL, RESPECT TRADITION

Remember that West African red palm oil is a separate product, with longstanding cultural roots that must be respected. Ozoz adds some advice for businesses buying this food for traditional purposes. “Responsible production for me looks like care for the soil throughout the process; living wages for all workers throughout the supply chain; better consumer education; and production that’s geared towards local consumption first,” she says. “Community-based producers should be supported, particularly those who are focused on regenerative agriculture. I source my palm oil from Organic Dorothy, a Nigerian organisation that supports and advocates for thoughtful production and nutritive ingredients.” 

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Images courtesy of RSPO.