PETALING JAYA: Affected local planters, whose palm oil products are banned by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on forced labour allegations, must speed up the submission of their independent evaluation reports to the relevant US authorities. Last Friday, Reuters reported that Ferrero said it will stop buying palm oil from SDP over forced labour allegations. Ferrero had requested that starting April 6, all its direct suppliers stop supplying palm oil and palm kernel oil sourced indirectly from SDP until further notice. “Thus, the Italian confectionery group would have had many avenues to explore before taking this extreme action to boycott SDP products,” he noted. Chandran added that Ferrero seemed to have overlooked the fact that SDP is the world’s largest producer of certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
