Abengoa SA, a Spanish energy company, said it won’t buy palm oil from Sinar Mas Group until theIndonesian producer complies with its sustainability policies.
Abengoa joins Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food maker,and Unilever NV in ruling out purchases from Sinar Mas,Indonesia’s biggest palm oil producer.
That follows an April 2008 report by the environmental group Greenpeace that said Sinar Mas destroyed rainforest, causing global-warming emissionsand hurting the habitat of the endangered orangutan.
Indonesia is the largest palm oil producer. Abengoa’sbiofuels unit asked its raw materials providers to exclude palmoil from any unit of the Sinar Mas group, the company said.
The Indonesian company’s unit, known as SMART, said April 1 that it’s appointed two bodies, Control Union Certification and the BSI Group, to investigate the Greenpeace claims. The reviewis scheduled to take three months from its April 20 start date.
The Indonesia Palm Oil Association has called the decisionsby Nestle and Unilever to halt purchases unfair. Cargill Inc.,the largest U.S. agricultural company, has also said it may stopdoing business with the company if the claims are correct and ittakes no action.
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