We are committed to sourcing and processing traceable and certified sustainable palm oil. We believe that palm oil and palm kernel oil must be produced in a manner that is legally compliant and traceable, that protects forests and biodiversity, reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has a positive social impact and respects the rights of indigenous peoples, workers and local communities.

We believe that close engagement with our suppliers is key as our sustainability goals cannot be achieved in isolation and require the collaboration of all stakeholders. Suppliers, in particular, are our focus to transforming the industry and making sure palm oil is produced sustainably. By actively engaging with our suppliers we can support them in improving their standards and practices and deliver a positive impact.

All suppliers (direct supply) are required to have complied with Bunge’s Sustainable Palm Oil Policy from February 2017 and to be transparent about their operations. Prior to receiving deliveries of palm oil products originating from potential new suppliers, we will implement the following due diligence measures:

• Provide the potential supplier with a copy of Bunge’s Sustainable Palm Oil Policy and advise them of the  requirements for (third party) suppliers.
• Conduct a group-level risk review, to determine if the company’s operations have the potential to involve non-compliance with our policy. This will include a review of the potential supplier’s feedback on Bunge’s policy commitments and our request for relevant permits, legal licenses and concession maps (in shapefile format and where legally possible) for the potential supplier’s entire operations, as well as environmental impact assessments and HCS and HCV studies.
• Undertake a gap analysis to identify what material is missing, inadequate or unclear, and request additional material from the potential supplier
• Fact-check claims by seeking publicly available information including information lodged with government agencies, satellite mapping information (e.g. through Global Forest Watch), RSPO complaints and information available online. Where potential new suppliers have undertaken plantation development that is incompatible with this policy after February 2017, appropriate conservation / restoration / compensation measures and an implementation plan will need to be agreed prior to  entering into contracts to receive oil originating from that supplier. Where evaluation has been delegated to trading partners (indirect supply), we will request our trading partners to observe similar due diligence measures and provide its findings prior to shipping oil from potential new suppliers to Bunge Loders Croklaan or its subsidiaries.

Once all elements are completed and our in-house questionnaire is completed online (ArcGIS), the supplier is marked for approval.