” Nestlé: A transparent and traceable supply chain What are some of the key principles for Nestlé when it comes to sustainable palm oil? At Nestlé, we believe that the first step towards sustainably produced palm oil is to create a transparent and traceable supply chain. We are committed to transform our palm oil supply chain in compliance with our Responsible Sourcing Guidelines. Nestlé is conscious of its responsibility in contributing to effective and sustainable solutions. You have been working with AAK for many years. How do you view AAK as a supplier? AAK has for many years been one of our leading suppliers of oils and fats. Over the last two years Nestlé has seen Achieving traceability As part of implementing our sustainable palm oil policy commitments of no deforestation and no development on peatland, we request all our raw material suppliers of palm oil to provide us with traceability information. This has also become a mandatory requirement for new suppliers as part of our standard approval procedure for palm oil suppliers. 2014 was a successful year in the sense of relatively quickly adjusting our supply chain to meet the necessary requirements 24 stipulated in our palm oil policy. It has been important for us to work closely with our suppliers and explain to them why AAK requests information which for some suppliers is regarded as sensitive information. Nevertheless, our suppliers have generally welcomed the initiative which AAK among other palm oil processors is taking in transforming its supply chain towards palm oils produced under stronger sustainable practices. By the end of 2014 we achieved 100 percent traceable to mill for all the palm oils sourced at origin, which is a result of a joined teamwork within AAK together with our suppliers around the world. For the palm kernel oils sourced from AAK take strong action to address key sustainability issues. The strengthening of the AAK Sustainable Palm Oil Policy in 2014 to include commitments to no deforestation and no development of peatlands was a significant step forward. AAK’s work to date to support their supply chains is aligned with their commitment and has been important for Nestlé. We are convinced that AAK will continue its journey and encourage them to continue showing progress on transparency, traceability, and implementing its policy in the coming years. Marco Gonçalves Nestlé SA Chief Procurement Officer origin, we managed to end 2014 at 89 percent traceable which we consider a strong result given the complexity of this supply chain. Strong focus will continue throughout 2015 within all areas. For oil being produced away from origin, we generally find that the whole industry is having difficulties in getting fully traceable oil to the mill level. The reason is that much of these suppliers’ feedstocks are commingled in land tanks at the port of shipment, and further throughout transportation. This makes it difficult to maintain traceability back to mills, where the crude oils could possibly have been produced. Despite our strong progression on traceability during 2014, our journey is far from completed. It has to be emphasized that traceability is only a tool for risk assessing our supply chain. Having the traceability in place is of course a necessary starting point to ensure that the oil we source complies with our policy requirements. Some stakeholders are currently asking for traceability beyond the mill level all the way to plantation level. We fully agree that such traceability will allow us to make an even more thorough assessment of our
AAK - Sustainability Report 2014/2015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above