CHINA IS THE LEADING CONSUMER OF OIL PALM

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) posted an article about the current pressures focused on Cargill in the USA (discussed further in a previous post), to stop their dirty and dangerous practices of developing oil palm plantations in the rich tropical rainforests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.

China has recently become the most dominant consumer nation of oil palm. Their climate is too cold and dry to produce oil palm, so they have turned to Indonesia to meet their demands for cheap cooking oil and processed foods. China is already working with one of Malaysia's bigger producers, Sime Sarby, whose CEO expects the demand from China to increase an astounding 100% over the next decade.

The main points of the article are to:

• Encourage Cargill to adopt a global forest policy
• Get Chinese producers and consumers on-board with sustainable palm oil practices ASAP
• Encourage new policy and advocacy strategies (to push China's oil palm lobbying towards responsible oil palm growing development to meet their growing demand for oil palm products).

Click below for the full story:

http://understory.ran.org/2009/10/09/the-elephant-in-the-oil-palm-plantation-chinas-growing-influence-in-the-oil-palm-industry/