Bunge Loders Croklaan (BLC) is committed to building supply chains that are transparent, verified sustainable and impactful on the ground. In its recent report, “Final Countdown”, Greenpeace states it is time for companies to take action and do four things: adopt strong standards, verify results, stop the problem and be transparent.

We agree, and believe we are making good progress in all of these areas. The items below pertain to palm oil volumes sourced by Bunge Loders Croklaan and Bunge.

Adopt strong standards

• In March 2018 Bunge adopted the existing Loders Croklaan Sustainable Palm Oil Policy with strong NDPE commitments and specific mechanisms for implementation of policy commitments for existing and new suppliers.
• BLC has an active group-level supplier due diligence process.

Stop the problem

• BLC has a solid grievance mechanism. Grievance are reported on a public grievance list, which is regularly updated. All of the supplier companies named in the Greenpeace report are listed on our grievance list or are under investigation.
  • 45 grievances listed
  • 7 grievances resulted in corrective measures
  • 17 grievances resulted in purchasing consequences
• We support landscape initiatives within our supply base in Indonesia (Sumatra) and Malaysia (P. Malaysia).
  • Projects include work on mapping and planning in high-value regions, support of smallholders, promotion of improved labor standards and best practices on peat lands.

Verify results

• Through direct engagement with suppliers (Mills, refiners and traders) and collaboration with Aidenvironment, we have been able to map a significant part of our suppliers’ concessions of both our direct and indirect supply chain.  We use the maps internally to verify and monitor supplier performance against our policy. We encourage our suppliers to voluntarily publish their concessions, ideally via the RSPO and Global Forest Watch websites. It is in the growers' interest to demonstrate that their concessions can be “verified deforestation free”
• We actively monitor our supply base in P. Malaysia and Sabah and receive bi-weekly alerts of land use changes
• We engage with our suppliers (mills, refiners and traders) to verify the progress they make with the implementation of their NDPE commitments

Be transparent

• On a quarterly basis, we update our palm oil dashboard that includes all elements mentioned in this statement including:
  • Traceability numbers
  • Grievances
  • List of supplying mills
  • Volumes (%) of oil sourced from NDPE sellers, RSPO certified, actively monitored and verified deforestation free are reported 

Additional progress will be aided by the industry leveraging existing platform and systems which deliver high standards, verification, transparency and issue resolution. RSPO is one. We encourage support by stakeholders, including Greenpeace, of the ongoing Principles & Criteria review process. The revised Principles & Criteria include NDPE elements, such as the protection of high carbon stock (HCS) forest, and are due to be approved at the RSPO general assembly in November.