NBPOL named leader in sustainable farming

PAPUA New Guinea’s biggest palm oil producer has been named as the world’s leading sustainable agricultural company by a London-based independent assessment organisation.
New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL), which has farms in PNG and Solomon Islands, was ranked number one among agricultural companies.
The Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) Project ranked 100 companies from every region of the world, including Colgate-Palmolive, Gucci and Heinz, in its 2012 assessment.
Backed by US$13 trillion in invested capital, the FFD Project engages with smallholders and works with them to improve yields and reduce the area of land that needs to be farmed.
It rates agricultural companies highly if they have independently verified sustainable certification of their products.
The FFD Project also rates the timber industry, oil and gas, cattle producers and many others.
The FFD Projects director James Hulse says NBPOL was the only company to score well in all categories.
“In terms of all of those, it is certified, it is engaging with its suppliers and it is working with the community and within the community to really try to improve best practice as to how it goes about its plantations,” he said.
“New Britain Palm Oil is one of the few companies to have a fully integrated, segregated, supply chain that I believe is almost entirely RSPO certified.”
NBPOL was a foundation member of the industry certification body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, but it found the process was expensive.
“I think there are financial advantage to becoming RSPO certified,” Hulse said.
“There have been a number of studies done that show, yes, there has been an investment but, yes, there has been a return in terms of improved yields and lower input costs.” –  ABC