From time to time, people ask me about Axfood’s position regarding the use of palm oil. Indeed, it’s a complex, and highly relevant question. Palm oil has been disputed for many years, not least because it is considered to spur rainforest deforestation and reduced biological diversity. At times, consumer pressure to avoid or even boycott palm oil has been considerable. At the same time, it is important to recall that millions of people, in particular in Malaysia and Indonesia, are dependant on it for their livelihoods. Moreover, palm oil plays a crucial role for the economies of these countries. As a large food company, how are we to best handle the issue?

Let us begin with looking at production. Globally, huge volumes of palm oil are being produced every year – an estimated 70 million tons. Demand continues to grow, not least from large and emerging markets such as China and India. Palm oil appears in a number of products, inter alia in foods such as cookies, powder-based sauces and candy. Its popularity can be explained by its taste, texture and relative cost-competitiveness.

Palm oil is extracted from oil palm trees, which are cultivated in large plantations. In order to make space for the cultivations, large areas of rainforest are devastated, a key reason why palm oil is being criticized. The cultivations cover large land areas. In Indonesia, which accounts for about half of all the palm oil produced in the world, it’s equivalent to a third of the total surface of Sweden. In many places around the world, new oil palm tree plantations are emerging, for example in Africa and Latin America.

Today, Axfood tolerates palm oil in our own products, provided that it’s certified. Thereby we take part in contributing to a more sustainable development, with better living conditions for the people involved in the production, while preventing further deforestation. In the future, we will increasingly move towards using the stricter RSPO Next certification. In parallel, we also replace palm oil in an increasing number of our own products, not least in response to the strong consumer pressure. All our packaging clearly declares whenever palm oil is included in the product. Over time, the goal is to move towards using other fats than palm oil in our own products.

Over the past few years, palm oil has gained a new area of utilisation. As more alternatives to fossil fuels are needed, a growing quantity of raw material from the oil palm is being used for diesel production. Already in 2017, nearly half of all of the palm oil imported to the EU was used for transportation, in total close to four million tons. The EU Commission has decided to phase out palm oil as  fuel, with an exception for small-scale producers, something which is being  criticised by the environmental movemement.

In addition to spurring further devastation of the rain forest, increasing demand from the transport sector also pushes food prices upwards, primarily at the expense of the economically vulnerable populations all over the world. In Axfood we therefore say no to filling our trucks with fuel made from palm oil. At the same time, we work with a long-term view towards diversifying our fleet of trucks and gradually quit using fossil fuels, in favour of renewable fuels such as liquid and compressed biogas, rape seed-based fuel, ethanol and electricity. Today, roughly a fifth of our fleet is fuelled by fossil-free alternatives, a share that is continuously growing.

In the transition to a fossil-free Sweden, achieving fossil-free transportation is a major challenge. In order to suceed we need long-term policy perspectives and a national strategy that  comprehends conditions for the industry to be able to invest in more sustainable vehicles and fuels. Policy therefore needs to advance its positions and create the foundation for a faster switch to fossil-free transports. Naturally, without feedstock from palm oil.

Åsa Domeij
Head of Sustainability, Axfood