Developing traceability

To drive improved transparency within the palm oil industry as a whole, we have collaborated with our partners from CORE (Daemeter & Proforest) and developed a Traceability to Plantations (TTP) approach specifically for palm oil based waste and residue raw materials, such as PFAD. Our aim has been to develop a common approach to tracing palm oil-based waste and residues and to develop a common definition and shared understanding of the concept for all the actors in the industry. 

Our Risk-calibrated Approach (RCA) towards TTP prioritizes gathering more data from suppliers sourcing raw material in higher risk areas, such as those in close proximity to forests, uncultivated peat, and protected areas.

Since 2018, we have engaged with palm oil suppliers to introduce the approach with an intention to start implementing it together. The progress we have made in developing traceability for our PFAD supply chain all the way to palm oil plantations is largely based on this work. At the end of 2021, we had been able to independently map and validate 99.97% of our PFAD supply chain to the supplying palm oil mills and 84% all the way to plantations.

Building industry-wide acceptance for the approach has potential to significantly improve the overall transparency of palm oil supply chains, particularly those that are primarily serving industries and do not have legal traceability requirements similar to those in the biofuels sector. A commonly shared approach is key to enabling and speeding up coherent efforts towards improved traceability within the palm oil sector as a whole. 

See our PFAD traceability dashboard for more on the progress we have made.