Tesco

And now time for the big giant, Tesco:

"I can appreciate your concerns regarding the implications of Palm Oil production and I would like to take this opportunity to explain our position.

We acknowledge the significant environmental consequences of rainforest destruction and the impact this is having on the orangutans. It's therefore very important that a sustainable supply is developed and supported by food and non-food manufacturers, especially those who currrently use Palm Oil in their products. But, such a supply, on the basis of an internationally agreed definition, doesn't exist at present.

We're encouraged that the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm OIl (RSPO) has recently come forward with a definition of sustainable production. This mmeans that, after a thereshold date, Palm Oil being produced on land from which the rainforest had been cleraed would be excluded. Palm Oil is usded inmany products and by a lrage number of manufacturers across the world. So, translating this promising work into the reality of an internationally recognised supply, as well as a market for the sustainability of Palm Oil, is a major challenge. I would like to reassure you that we're determined to play our part in meeting it.

To help us with this, we've recently become members of the RSPO. The RSPO will help the industry identify ways of sourcing our knowledge and ideas, and we'll make a positive contribution to building a sustainable supply chain.

We've also initiated discussions with other major retailers through the British Retail Consortium (BRC). And we're currently in ongoing discussions with our suppliers, to identify how we can all work together to achieve the goal of a genuinely sustainable supply of Palm Oil, and over which time scale.

We understand the strong level of concern about the loss of rainforest and the implications this holds for the habitat of the orangutans it supports. As a member of the RSPO and by working with other retailers we're playing our part."


For some reason, probably their track record, I don't have much trust in Tesco. For a company with such a large market share surely it should be leading the other retailers forwards. From this I get the impression that it's tagging along as a PR job rather than doing anything significant - or is that just me?