NEWS IN BRIEF WORLD: German chemicals firm BASF announced on 4 March that it had reached its target of procuring palm kernel oil (PKO) exclusively from Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified sources by 2020. BASF said it had bought 227,213 tonnes of certified sustainable PKO last year and was now focused on ensuring that its purchases of significant palm oil and PKO intermediates – such as fatty alcohols and fatty acids – were from certified sources by 2025. PKO and its derivatives are used in personal care and cleaning applications. BASF added that 95% of its global palm footprint, totalling 441,107 tonnes, was now traceable back to the oil mill level.
Sime Darby begins legal action against NGO head Malaysia-based Sime Darby Plantation Berhad (SDP) announced on 11 March that it had started legal action against the managing director of an NGO in order to obtain information about a complaint he filed with the Securities Commission of Malaysia about SDP. The company said it was the first time in its 200-year history that it had resorted to taking legal action against an NGO. SDP filed its legal application against Liberty Shared managing director Duncan Jepson on 9 March in the Eastern District of Virginia, USA. It said the aim of the proceedings was to obtain important information regarding a complaint filed by Jepson with Malaysia’s Securities Commission, in which he alleged wrongful disclosures in SDP’s Sustainability Report 2019. Liberty Shared had filed a complaint with the United States Customs and Border Protection agency on 20 April 2020, alleging the use of
forced labour in the production of palm oil in SDP’s Malaysian estates. SDP said it was made aware of the complaint on 7 July 2020, when Liberty Shared posted a summary of it on its website. However, it said the summary did not contain enough information to allow it to close any alleged gaps in its operations. “The Securities Commission started investigations into Jepson’s complaint and then sought further information from [us],” the company said. SDP said it would cooperate fully with the commission and it was therefore vitally important that it obtain limited but critical information from the complaint filed by Jepson. SDP is the world’s largest palm oil plantation company by planted area, according to its website, with oil palm planted across more than 600,000ha in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. It produces around 2.5M tonnes/year or 4% of global crude palm oil.
US plant-based food company Beyond Meat has signed distribution agreements with several high-profile fast food chains, The Independent reports. The company announced the deals on 25 February with McDonald’s and with Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. McDonald's will use the Beyond Meat partnership to launch its McPlant burger, as well as explore the development of plant-based pork, egg and chicken products, The Independent wrote. Yum! would use the deal to expand its Beyond Fried Chicken products, as well
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Beyond Meat expands deals with fast food giants
Beyond Meat will supply plant-based burgers, pizza toppings and other plant-based products to McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell
as pizza toppings at Pizza Hut. The global rise in consumer demand for plant-based foods
is opening up new markets for oils and fats, which are used to add flavour, moisture and tex-
ture to new meat alternatives. Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said the new deals were a “tipping point” in terms of plant-based meat’s prominence, FoodIngredientsFirst reported. The agreements were an expansion of Beyond Meat’s earlier partnerships with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, when a number of its products were tested in limited locations, The Independent said. Several fast food chains were also experimenting with new plant-based products, including Burger King which had partnered with plant-based food company Impossible Foods.
France's BNP targets soyabeans from Amazon land French international banking group BNP Paribas announced on 15 February that it will no longer provide financial services to customers who grow or buy Brazilian soyabeans from Amazonian land that has been cleared or converted since 2008. The company said Brazilian beef and soyabean production had accelerated deforestation in the country’s Amazon and Cerrado regions which “legal or illegal, jeopardises the ecological integrity and 4 OFI – MARCH/APRIL 2021
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future of these two biomes”. There was an “urgent need” for all relevant stakeholders to prioritise land use strategies that integrated zero deforestation, sustainable production and a positive social impact, BNP said. “Financial institutions exposed to the agricultural sector in Brazil must contribute to this fight against deforestation,” it said. BNP said the move was part of its commitment to encourage its customers
producing or buying beef or soya from the country’s Amazon and Cerrado regions to become ‘zero deforestation’. As a result, BNP said it would only provide its products or services to companies with a strategy to achieve zero deforestation in their production and supply chains by 2025. It would also encourage its clients not to produce or buy beef or soyabeans from cleared or converted land in the country’s Cerrado region after 1 January 2021. www.ofimagazine.com
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