Palm kernel imports under threat from Greens
September 14th, 2009
Dairy farmers could potentially face higher supplementary feed costs as the pressure goes on the Govt to stop palm kernel imports. The Greens are calling on the Govt and Fonterra to reduce imports of the feed, saying it is produced unsustainably and its use here is damaging NZ’s international reputation. Co-leader Russel Norman says palm kernel and palm oil are produced on land cleared of tropical rainforest in Indonesia and Malaysia, which is a major source of carbon emissions and the extinction of animals. Palm kernel imports have jumped from 400kgs in 1999 to 455,000 tonnes in 2007 and 1.1m tonnes in 2008.
Norman says this is a quarter of all global palm kernel production, which threatens not only the local grain industry, but NZ’s environmental reputation. He is calling on the Govt and Fonterra, which part owns rural supply chain RD1, to do something to stop the “addiction” to the cheap, but unsustainable palm kernel, which is being used to prop up unsustainable dairy farming.
Greenpeace NZ climate campaigner Simon Boxer says Wilmar International, the company supplying kernel to RD1, is the world’s largest trader of palm oils and kernel and has a bad reputation for rainforest destruction. But Fonterra sustainability manager John Hutchings claims Wilmar is a reputable company operating on sustainable principals “it has been working very hard to ensure all of its mills and plantations are RSPO – Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil – certified, and it has almost completed that task.”
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