On 9 March, Swedish broadsheet Svenska Dagbladet carried an article on palm oil production and the destruction of rainforest. The article is interesting in that it considers both the major damage to biodiversity caused by the expansion, and the increased prosperity that the plantations bring. Palm oil production is efficient, since the yield per hectare is high.

There is considerable environmental interest in the issues surrounding palm oil. It is one of the most common environmental questions that comes in to me here at Axfood. I think we perhaps receive more questions than others might, since we declare on our private label products that they contain palm oil. Many customers would prefer to choose a product that uses an alternative such as rapeseed oil or sunflower oil. We are tackling the issue on two fronts – replacing palm oil with other oils, while at the same time supporting more sustainable palm oil production by purchasing green palm oil certificates for the amount that our private label products contain. This approach makes more environmentally aware palm oil production more profitable. In a few years, we hope to have only sustainably produced (certified) palm oil in our products.