Sustainable Palm Oil Coalition for India (I-SPOC)

Published on January 23, 2022

I-SPOC is a business led multi-stakeholder initiative created with the goal of promoting sustainable consumption, import and trade of palm oil and its derivatives along the supply chain. The Coalition was founded by four organizations – one of them being Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and was formally launched in September 2018. Since its launch, 30 organizations have joined as members. The Coalition consists of three focus areas each constituting a working group namely, Government Policy and Domestic Production, Supply Chain (including Traders & Refiners) and End Consumers (FMCGs, Retailers and Consumers) and Financial Institutions. CRB acts as the Secretariat of this coalition/platform.

The list of daily consumables for many of us includes items like biscuits, chips, chocolates, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. All of these items use one common ingredient - palm oil or its derivatives. Palm oil is well established as an essential and ubiquitous ingredient in many FMCG products, personal care items, cosmetics, etc. This in turn has raised questions pertaining to methods by which this commodity is sourced and eventually traded and consumed.

Demand for palm oil in countries like India, Indonesia and China exerts significant pressure on expansion of palm plantations especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. Given its high demand and diversified use, palm oil has been and continues to be one of the primary factors of deforestation in some of the world’s most bio-diverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species. This forest loss coupled with conversion of carbon rich peat soils are throwing out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change

The uptake of sustainably sources palm oil and derivates among CGM or FMCG companies operating in India (both MNCs and Indian companies) has been very low.