- Reuters’ story on Nestle and the EUDR makes it clear there is panic in the industry;
- AAL and FOE: Do NGOs want palm to be certified or not?
Reuters: Nestle clearly knows the EUDR isn’t ready
Reuters published a story on a ‘leaked’ a letter this week stating that Nestle, Mars and Ferrero all back the forthcoming EUDR.
While the companies might “back” the regulation, it’s reasonably obvious from the Reuters story that they also see the regulation’s significant problems.
According to the report, the companies want the Commission to:
“Launch a committee to coordinate with countries’ national authorities, and give guidance on issues including legal interpretations and firms’ due diligence obligations, to help companies prepare to comply by its Dec. 30 start date.”
In other words, the companies are acutely aware that the EUDR simply isn’t ready. Why else would companies call for a committee? The Commission has been promising guidance on what would constitute legality for literally months, and that this guidance would be available by June of this year.
The position of these companies will be virtually the same as the position of Caobisco – the confectionery peak body in Europe, which Ferrero, Mars and Nestle are all members of.
Last month Caobisco wrote a letter to the Commission stating:
“Urgent action is required from the European Commission to provide all the necessary tools and systems, as specified in the Regulation, to minimize the risk of market disruptions, food waste and unnecessary administrative burden on companies.”
This further underlines the awareness within the industry that the EUDR is simply not going well — and that many industries are looking for a delay.
This also raises a question about what sort of consultation the Commission is actually doing to warrant these responses.
The Commission’s stakeholder platform for the EUDR has clearly not provided industry participants with much confidence.
It’s worth noting that the last time the FAQ document on the EUDR was updated was in December 2023. At the most recent deforestation platform meeting – which was a month ago now – there were “strong calls” from stakeholders wanting Guidance and clarification, to which the Commission “confirmed that as soon as these documents are approved internally, they will be publicly available.”
To that point, the Commission gave a response to Polish MEP Kosma Zlotowski on when guidance on implementation might be ready. It took more than four months for the Commission to reply with a suitably vague answer, stating that “benchmarking is underway”, and that it is “actively engaged with relevant stakeholders”, and there will be an “upcoming Guidance document”.
There is a genuine lack of confidence among European stakeholders that the EUDR will be remotely fit for purpose.
Do NGOs support certification at all?
This week a group of NGOs called on RSPO to block the membership of Astra Agro Lestari (AAL) after it announced it would join the organisation earlier this month.
This was possibly one of the strangest moves by NGOs in the history of palm oil campaigns.
First, Friends of the Earth – which led the letter – has consistently denigrated the RSPO for more than a decade, arguing that its entire model is ineffective. Even in its press release, FOE states that “non-adherence to RSPO standards is systematic and widespread amongst members.” In which case, why does FOE care if AAL joins RSPO in the first place?
Second, AAL has been the target of any number of campaigns for more than a decade to have them sign up to RSPO commitments, whether in the form of HCS, NDPE or otherwise. Just a few years ago Friends of the Earth issued a broad-scale report calling on AAL and other companies to adhere to RSPO commitments.
It’s worth noting that this report was funded by the Norwegian Government with support from the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA). One of CLUA’s remits was effectively to pressure companies such as AAL to sign up to RSPO-type commitments.
That said, it’s unlikely that it was NGO pressure that pushed AAL to sign up to RSPO. It’s worth remembering that more than 80 per cent of the world’s palm oil market isn’t certified to RSPO standards.
As we said many years ago, there are a large number of NGOs that simply hate palm oil companies. It doesn’t matter what commitments companies make, or even how successful they are when it comes to sustainability, they will never support their actions.