Businesses look to import palm oil sustainably as EU legislation bites

of the palm oil imported into the EU is for use in food applications. Palm oil is found in packaged bread, croissants, chocolate bars, potato crisps, margarine, frozen meals, non-dairy creamers and breakfast cereals. It’s popular because it’s cheap, stable at room temperature, neutral in flavour and versatile in processing. But a number of recent EU regulatory changes will impact the way that palm oil is produced, imported and used. These were made in response to concerns that EU biofuel incentives were driving deforestation in producing countries through Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC). In 2018, the EU’s updated Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) ended a transport emissions reduction target, driving palm oil imports for energy and sharply restricted how much palm oil (and other first-generation biofuels) could be used to meet the target. That policy pivot, combined with later EU anti-deforestation rules, has in turn driven large structural shifts in producing countries. These ...