Contributes to:
AAK has been sourcing coconuts from India and Sri
Lanka since the 1930s. Nowadays, Indonesia, the
Philippines, and India are the three biggest coconut
producers, accounting for 70 percent of global production.
We source our coconut oil from the Philippines,
Indonesia and partly from India.
Understanding our supply base
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for responsible sourcing together with shea, palm oil,
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try-wide sustainability standard exists. Therefore, AAK
teamed up with Proforest to conduct a risk assessment
for our coconut supply chains.
The main priorities based on the risk assessment are
listed below:
1) Improve traceability
2) Improve farmer livelihoods and keep them
interested in growing coconuts
3) Rejuvenate the coconut industry
Engaging with suppliers and farmers
Based on priorities one and two, we have progressed
on our supplier engagement in three different ways.
1) We have developed a supplier engagement workshop
aimed at the mill, middlemen and farmer
levels. The workshops aim to empower supply chain
stakeholders to provide the relevant traceability data
as well as to inform them in detail how to adhere to
our Code of Conduct for suppliers of Raw Materials.
Additionally, a section on good agricultural practices
has been included. We had aimed to conduct the
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due to an earthquake in the Philippines. We expect
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2) We have directly engaged with our tier 1 suppliers
to help them improve the traceability in their supply
chains. Key suppliers have been engaged and
follow-up workstreams have been initiated. We will
continue to follow up on this work as well as expand
our outreach during 2020.
3) We have completed the Rainforest Alliance Chain
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is the right tool to improve traceability and farmer
income in our direct supply chain originating in
Indonesia.
Driving impact beyond our supply base
Because approximately 90 percent of all coconut
trees globally are reaching the end of their productive
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engaged with a key supplier in the Philippines and have
established a coconut nursery.
AAK buys coconuts from local farmers to be placed in
the nursery. The coconuts are then nurtured until they
grow into strong young seedlings. Once mature enough,
the seedlings are handed over to the farmers to be
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ship with the Philippine Coconut Authority to increase
the outreach of this initiative.
Additionally, AAK has been part of the initial industry
meetings on sustainable coconut production. We plan to
continue contributing to these discussions in the future.
37
Coconut – further efforts in responsible sourcing