Palm oil’s implementation versus commitments gap

The cost, complexity and collaboration challenges for the palm oil sector

Imperial College’s Josh Lyons-White discusses with Toby Webb a new study into barriers for palm oil sector companies to implement their zero deforestation commitments. While Lyons-White cautions against over-simplification of palm oil’s hugely challenging supply chains, the barriers can be summarised as relating to cost, complexity and collaboration. He argues that for brands with palm oil in their products, finding the necessary leverage to change the market is a real problem. Even at an EU level, the impact of a ban on palm oil would not be that significant when that market is compared with India.