Our deforestation-free supply chain

Natural forests are critical carbon sinks and host the vast majority of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. They also play an important role in supporting the livelihoods of millions of people, particularly indigenous and local communities.

SIPEF is proudly deforestation free. Our strict no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation (NDPE) policy, in place since 2015, prohibits new developments in High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, High Carbon Stock (HCS) forests, and peatlands, or on fragile or marginal soils. 

Our banana operations comply with the requirements of the relevant certification standards: Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, and GlobalG.A.P.

SIPEF only acquires land after completing Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes, social and environmental impact assessments, and integrated HCV-HCSA (High Carbon Stock Approach) assessments by independent experts. 

Supply chain management

SIPEF has implemented a third-party monitoring system that ensures compliance across its supply base. This system covers SIPEF’s own estates and those of its suppliers in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, with a focus on detecting and verifying land use changes within and around concession areas.

All third-party fresh fruit bunch (FFB) suppliers, all of whom are smallholders, must comply with SIPEF’s Responsible Purchasing Policy (RPuP), which sets out criteria for selecting and working with oil palm smallholders on their journey towards certification. The policy ensures that our FFB suppliers are, or will become, certified to the RSPO standard, wherever and whenever possible. To achieve this, we actively supporting smallholders towards certification.

The RPuP also provides the framework for the procedures utilised to select, monitor and, if necessary, suspend, exclude, or expel smallholders in our supply base. These procedures are aligned with SIPEF's Responsible Plantations Policy (RPP) and are based on requirements linked to RSPO certification, legality, production location mapping, ethical business conduct, human rights and labour standards, and environmentally responsible production.

Managing compliance

We manage compliance in our supply chain through an internal control system, which includes the provision of training/ awareness, inspections, and internal audits, all of which are conducted by our Smallholder Department and the Sustainability Department.

For non-conformances against critical criteria, we engage with suppliers to address the root cause. If the non-conformances are not addressed on time, smallholders can be suspended. These critical criteria include, but are not limited to, our commitment to no deforestation and no new planting on peat.

We will only consider lifting suspensions after any non-conformances have been remedied. Smallholders are provided the necessary support to address non-conformances and have a suspension lifted.

More details are available in SIPEF’s Smallholder Engagement Framework.

Traceability

SIPEF is a leader in traceability. All of our commodities are fully traceable to their production location.

Traceability is a fundamental principle for sustainability in agricultural commodity supply chains. It is also essential for ensuring food safety, meeting consumer demands for transparency, complying with regulations, and improving supply chain management and efficiency. SIPEF invests in cutting-edge technology to improve efficiency, transparency, traceability, and sustainability performance across our operations. 

All of the sustainability certifications that SIPEF complies with require full traceability on sourcing in order to claim full sustainability of a product:

Our nine palm oil mills are all certified in accordance with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard, with eight of the mills under the Identity Preserved (IP) supply chain model. One mill is operating under the Mass Balance (MB) model due to a portion of its supply base undergoing the RSPO certification process. Our two kernel crushing facilities are also RSPO certified. These facilities are fully integrated with our IP mills in Papua New Guinea, processing palm kernels that are 100% traceable to a fully certified supply base.

Further details on SIPEF’s certified palm oil production can be found in RSPO audit summary reports, which are accessible by doing a search on "SIPEF Group": 

here, with regard to the RSPO Principles and Criteria;
here, with regard to the RSPO Supply Chain Certification Standard.

Progress towards RSPO certification is reported annually through the RSPO Annual Communication of Progress (ACOP).

Our banana plantations and packing stations are all certified under the IP supply chain model in accordance with the requirements of Rainforest Alliance certification.

GeoSIPEF

GeoSIPEF is SIPEF's digital interactive mapping application using satellites to provide comprehensive traceability insights to customers. 

Together with drones, the platform helps to digitally map production areas and sustainably-certified volumes and monitors for fire and deforestation. It also provides additional information, including details on production capacity, and the proximity of operations to key protected conservation areas and biodiversity-sensitive landscapes. An upgraded version, launched in October 2024, includes a customer portal enabling secure tracking of purchased volumes from plot to mill to shipment, aligning with EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requirements.