Europe's food makers find green palm oil hard to stomach

Europe, the world’s second-biggest buyer of palm oil, is set to miss a 2020 target backed by about 10 countries, as well as big companies, to use 100-percent sustainable supplies of the edible oil in food ingredients, environmental experts warn.

A lack of public awareness and debate around the palm oil industry has left nations like Italy, Spain and Poland lagging behind their neighbors in green palm oil purchases, a January report by The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) said.

“Countries in northwestern Europe are leading the pack,” said Daan Wensing, a director at IDH, a Netherlands-based nonprofit. “Other major destinations are just getting started.”

In addition to a lack of government action to force buyers to purchase sustainable palm oil, Wensing said European catering firms and animal feed companies are not coming under consumer pressure to source greener supplies.