The Palm Oil Responses - Tesco

Tesco, the huge supermarket chain that is slowly but surely taking over the World was very quick to respons to my questions. In fact in took them the grand total of ten minutes.
This is what they had to say:

Thank you for your email

We are working to ensure that the palm oil we use in our products comes from sustainable sources. We have been full members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) since 2006 and are in a separate coalition of over 50 companies promoting the use of sustainable palm oil.

We have issued all of our own brand suppliers to the UK business with a timeline and code of practice. We have also held training courses for all Tesco’s Technical Managers, so they can help suppliers work towards our goal. From 2012 we have only been accepting products using palm oil from an RSPO-certified system. By 2015 all the palm oil in our own brand products will come from certified sustainable sources.

The main challenge is converting the volumes of certified sustainable palm oil available into the derivatives we use as ingredients for our products. We are working with our suppliers AAK and New Britain Palm to overcome critical sticking points in the derivatives supply chain, to improve the capacity for certified sustainable palm oil derivatives coming to market.

We have made the most progress on palm oil in our UK business and are working to understand the barriers to purchasing sustainable palm oil in our non-UK markets.

In order to develop the right conditions for a strong sustainable palm oil market, we believe that global consumer goods companies must work together. Tesco co-chairs (with Unilever) the sustainability pillar of the Consumer Goods Forum.

In November 2010, the group agreed a resolution pledging to mobilise resources within the respective businesses to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. The companies will achieve this both by individual company initiatives and by working collectively in partnership with governments and NGOs.