Snack Giant Mondelēz Tackles Forced Labor in Palm Oil Industry

Snack Giant Mondelēz Tackles Forced Labor in Palm Oil Industry

  • Published on
    April 26, 2019
  • News Source Image
  • Category:
    Forced Labor, Supply Chain
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Mondelēz International, one of the world’s top snack food companies, has published an updated action plan to improve transparency and traceability in its palm oil supply chain.

Mondelēz is the company behind brands such as Nabisco, Oreo, Wheat Thins, Cadbury, Toblerone, and Triscuit, and palm oil is often a key ingredient in many of these foods.

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Its new action plan focuses on higher expectations of its direct palm oil suppliers and calls on the entire palm oil industry to move faster to eliminate deforestation and forced labor.

Global Newswire reports:

In the future, any supplier to Mondelēz International will be required to:

  • Take full responsibility for eliminating deforestation in their own operation and upstream supply chain by mapping and monitoring all plantations and adopting a “suspend and engage” approach requiring immediate suspension of companies involved in deforestation.
  • Take action against the exploitation of worker human rights through adopting the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Priority Industry Principles on forced labor.
  • Improve traceability and transparency by maintaining universal mill lists with group level owners clearly indicated, and publishing them regularly, as well as using satellite technology to map and monitor sources of palm.
  • Demonstrate implementation of supplier progress against this updated Palm Oil Action Plan as a prerequisite of doing business with Mondelēz International.

“We have a unique opportunity to reform palm oil once and for all and to make this ingredient truly sustainable,” said Alex Turolla, Vice President, Procurement at Mondelēz International.

“As a company we are shifting gears and taking action with our suppliers to ensure they share and actively support our commitment. The success of the approach we’re taking to combat deforestation through improved traceability and transparency does require action across the entire sector.”

Mondelēz International represents 0.5% of the global demand for palm oil but believes all actors within the industry need to step up, noting that “suppliers must take responsibility across their footprint and be held accountable for not only the physical supply of the oil they source but also the group-level companies that supply them.”

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Debra Lessard
Debra Lessard
5 years ago

Quit Palm oil everyone. It is causing the murders of Orangutangs every day. Your greed is not worth the lives of so many. You are uncivilized. You have no respect for any lives. Human or Animal. These animals are what brings in Dollars. Now you are very wrong-headed in your endeavors. There are ways to make money without taking any one’s life. Until you behave lives will be lost. The cruelty you show these animals is CRIMINAL. They are not the enemy. They lived there first for thousands of years

ANN KELLY
ANN KELLY
5 years ago
Reply to  Debra Lessard

We need to work for a sustainable palm oil industry, not quit altogether. Most of the alternatives to palm oil have a worse impact on the environment.

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