Palm Oil | Proud of Palm | Get the Facts with FriWite

On Sunday 13th October 2019, The Q Partnership (Henry Colbeck, Friars Pride & V A Whitley) held a sustainable oil seminar programme at Chester Zoo. Sponsored by FriWite.

The event which focused on the benefits of sustainable palm and which was led by sustainable and conservation experts, took place in Chester Zoo's lecture hall and featured an audience made up of fish friers, manufacturers, and suppliers to the fish & chip and fast food markets.

The purpose of the day was to;

Learn about the work of The Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
Hear from EFECA - The Experts in Sustainable Forest & Agricultural Advice
Listen to Chester Zoo’s conservation experts and discover why boycotting palm oil is not the answer.

The key industry speakers were;

Francesca Morgante, RSPO’s Market Development Manager
Judith Murdoch, an Associate of EFECA
Jennifer Tegg, Head of Marketing, Chester Zoo

The key messages being communicated by the industry professional are:

Boycotting palm is NOT the answer - replacing palm oil with oils such as sunflower, soybean or rapeseed would mean that larger amounts of land would need to be used, since palm trees produce 4-10 times more oil than other crops more forests would need to be converted into agricultural land to meet the growing global demand. In producing countries, millions of farmers and their families work in the palm oil sector. Palm oil plays an important role in the reduction of poverty in these areas. In Indonesia and Malaysia, a total of 4.5 million people earn their living from palm oil production. Stopping the production of palm altogether would create significant problems for these people who support their families by working in this industry.

Sustainable palm IS the answer - conservationists on the ground in Malaysia and Indonesia are positive in their approach to working with producing sustainable oil through reforestation and conserving economies as well as natural habitats. They are successfully addressing the issue of deforestation with reforestation and while switching to other types of vegetable oils seems like the practical solution it would, in fact, create larger environmental and social problems.

If you’re keen to find out more about being proud of palm, all the seminars were filmed and will be available via the FriWite.com website.

If you’d like to watch them, simply drop us a line at marketing@colbeck.co.uk and as soon as the videos are ready for viewing we’ll send you a link.