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View all search resultsKLM slammed over inflight magazine for ‘campaign’ against palm oil
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This bird's-eye view shows an oil palm plantation in Dumai, Riau. (Antara Photo/Rony Muharrman)
A
n industry association has called on Netherlands-based KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to remove a statement in its inflight magazine that requires its suppliers to "avoid using palm oil in their products."
In a letter to KLM CEO Pieter Elbers, Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) executive director Mahendra Siregar says the notion was a “somewhat misguided ignorance of the current developments in the global vegetable oil market in general and the related implication for the global environment.”
“Let me take this opportunity to enlighten KLM. The sole vegetable oil that can meet the increasing global demand is palm oil, because its productivity is far greater than competing products, such as rapeseed,” he wrote in the letter dated Nov. 23.
“In this context, several supplying countries of alternative vegetable oils have stated that they no longer have the land bank nor natural resources like water available to meet the future demand.”
Rapeseed yields 0.3 tons of oil per hectare, while soya and sunflower yield 0.6 tons and oil palm trees yield 3 to 6 tons of oil per hectares, according to the council.
KLM’s inflight magazine explicitly states the carrier’s demand for its suppliers to use no palm oil in their products. (bbn)
