Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the sustainability of palm oil production; and if he will make a statement.

The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan sets out our ambition to support and protect the world’s forests, supporting sustainable agriculture and zero-deforestation supply chains, including for palm oil.

The market for sustainable palm oil is dominated by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and so ’sustainable’ in this context is commonly understood to mean products certified to RSPO standards and criteria.

The UK Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil convened by the UK Government is working to improve reporting, traceability and understanding of supply chains to ensure continuous improvement and increased use of certified palm oil. The UK monitors the proportion of certified sustainable palm oil imported to the UK. The latest annual report from the UK Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil indicates that the UK achieved 75% certified sustainable palm oil in 2017.