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<\/p>\nWith markets such as the European Union ramping up the pressure on palm oil by pushing forth with sustainability regulatory frameworks that seemingly target the commodity, the impacts of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war have raised questions over the feasibility of boycotting an entire commodity at a time when vegetable oil supply is at risk of falling short of global requirements.<\/p>\n
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As it is, industry experts expect the crisis in Ukraine to have a significant impact on APAC countries in terms of a severe drop in vegetable oil supply\u200b, with millions of tons of oil production expected to be disrupted.<\/p>\n
Sunflower oil is likely to be the biggest casualty, as Ukraine produces some 19 million tons of this annually, with Ukraine and Russia together making up about 70% of global crude sunflower oil exports (Ukraine usually makes up about half of the export market).<\/p>\n
Furthermore, sunflower seeds are generally sown in April and May, and harvested in September \u2013 none of which looks likely to take place this year, which will drive sunflower oil supply down and prices up.<\/p>\n
As such, food and beverage firms have been urged to look to alternative vegetable oil sources to make up for this lack of supply, with palm oil being one of the top alternative choices \u2013 but this is a choice that the EU stands to lose out on if the boycotts on palm oil continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, it would make so much more sense to focus on not boycotting an entire commodity, but on buy-cotting \u2013 which is to buy products that you know are made sustainably with sustainable materials,\u201d<\/em>\u200b world\u2019s second-largest palm oil firm Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) Chief Sustainability and Comunications Officer Anita Neville told FoodNavigator-Asia<\/em>\u200b.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty obvious that the plant, oil palm, is not in and of itself bad, but the issues lie with the growing, the management, and so on \u2013 all of these things are based on human behaviours, and the fact is that human behaviours can be changed with the right effort and education. <\/em>\u200b<\/p>\n \u201cThere is of course still a lot more work to do, but it is beyond time that the international community recognizes that the palm oil sector is putting significant effort into this sustainable transformation \u2013 and instead of putting this on black or banned lists, they should instead be mindful of what is conveyed to consumers, and perhaps even look at investing to get the results they want.<\/em>\u200b<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t take it out on a plant. It is both unfair and unreasonable to just flat out say a global crop is not able to every be sustainable without even trying, so instead of boycotting palm oil, buy-cott sustainability as a way to encourage it \u2013 the more consumers do this, the more the market and the F&B brands will respond too.\u201d<\/em>\u200b<\/p>\n Backtracking on boycott\u200b<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to this, perhaps boycotters need to take a long and hard look at recent happenings in the United Kingdom, where heir to British supermarket chain Iceland Richard Walker was forced to make a very public backtrack on his previous 2018 declarations to ban palm oil from its products in the name of deforestation.<\/p>\n In his own words in a public statement, Walker expressed \u2018huge regret\u2019<\/em>\u200b that he would have to basically eat his words, and announced that certified sustainable palm oil would be making a comeback to products in Iceland stores to replace sunflower oil, particularly private label products.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only alternative to using palm oil under the current circumstances would simply be to clear our freezers and shelves of a wide range of staples including frozen chips and other potato products,\u201d<\/em>\u200b he stated.<\/p>\n \u201cIn many cases we can substitute rapeseed oil, but there are some recipes where the only viable substitute for sunflower oil \u2013 either because of its processing properties or taste issues \u2013 turns out to be \u2026 palm oil.<\/em>\u200b<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have agreed to use certified sustainable palm oil \u2013 as a last resort and as a strictly temporary measure \u2013 in a limited range of Iceland own label products that will begin to appear in our stores from June.\u201d<\/em>\u200b<\/p>\n Walker\u2019s decision at the time in 2018 was part of a joint marketing campaign with NGO Greenpeace, and had touted its palm oil ban as a bid to protect rainforests and wildlife that were supposedly being destroyed due to palm oil plantations.<\/p>\n \u201cBack in 2018, we assessed that this was nothing more than marketing to separate itself in a crowded UK grocery market and be perceived as the \u2018good\u2019 guy to consumers prepared to swallow the over-simplified message,\u201d<\/em>\u200b trade consultation firm Article Three Trade Policy Director Khalil Hegarty told us.<\/p>\n