As Europe scales back on its imports of palm oil, citing environmental and labor concerns, New Europe spoke with Pietro Paganini, an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Rome’s John Cabot University and the co-founder of the think-tank Competere – Policies for Sustainable Development, about the issue of palm oil sustainability at a time when countries in the European Union appear to have turned their backs on a major source of revenue for several developing countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia and Nigeria.
New Europe (NE): Speaking about palm oil, which is under attack by the EU, what could official certifications do in a framework of collaboration on sustainably between palm oil-producing countries and the European Union?
Pietro Paganini (PP): In the context of the so-called “ farm to fork” (which aims to accelerate our transition to a sustainable food system that should: have a neutral or positive environmental impact. help to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. reverse the loss of biodiversity), the countries producing palm oil should collaborate with Europe by focusing on two things: Firstly, a multilateral process in the “farm to fork “, Decisions from Brussels should be made together with non-EU countries, not because they export to the EU, but in order to avoid exports that are aimed at countries like China and India. These non-EU countries have very low sustainability standards. For this reason, the risk for palm oil producers could see them forced to shift their supply from Europe to China and India. This would not be good for Europe because it would then receive poor quality palm oil and because the project of global sustainability will collapse as Europe can’t be the only other active player. The second important element is to define, together with Brussels, which types of certification can be used and recognized among the sustainability criteria. I also think that the producing countries have an interest in making sure that these schemes are not only for palm oil that enters Europe from outside the EU, but also oil that is produced in Europe.
NE: The first joint working group meeting on palm oil between the European Union and the relevant Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) took place in January, What do you think about this initiative? Also, what do you think about the so-called nutri-score color-scheme idea that, in Italy, provoked widespread criticism at a political level?
PP: A dialogue group is always useful. The important thing is to have conclusions with common objectives and instruments that could be adopted at the legislative level. These common decisions, I hope, could be included in Europe’s “farm to fork” strategy, as well as in the other EU actions. Palm oil producers would suffer because an EU nutri-score scheme on all green products will have to avoid saturated fats, including palm oil and many other products. As a consumer, I can say that it is good to be given nutritional information about food products, but don’t oblige firms to implement a color scheme like a nutri-score or any other classification that push these companies to modify their nutritional profiles and reformulate their products in order to be considered “healthy”. The truth is, if you want to be categorized as A (green), with a food product, you are giving me permission to eat it. I don’t want even to imagine what ham or cheese under the “A” category would taste like.
NE: There are some initiatives being carried out by certain food companies who discriminate against other producers by placing on their labels “ free…”; what do you think about these types of measures?
PP: Yes, the label “palm oil free “ is already a type of discrimination for an average consumer because the fact that the producer cut palm oil out of the product is, from a nutritional point of view, irrelevant. This label is used by some companies to push a fact that has not been scientifically proven – that palm oil is bad for one’s health and the environment. Companies are stressing that they have cut palm oil from their products, but this is not true. Consumers have been badly influenced by a negative advertizing campaign. Labels that say “palm oil free “ are just misleading. I hope we could have a ban on these commercial claims as they mislead clients and are clearly discriminatory towards countries that are producing, in a sustainable way, palm oil and many other products. The Italian government has been very clear. If we say that palm oil was not used in a product, you have also to demonstrate that there is some kind of improvement caused by whatever replaced the palm oil. From a nutritional point of view, this improvement is ridiculous in terms of cutting saturated fats. For this reason, I think that the producing countries should work with individual European nations to stress that there are some companies that are using the “palm oil free” label to fool the public.
NE: Are there good examples of how to follow up, in terms of sustainable certifications management?