26 Nov 2015

Fonterra to meet with Greenpeace

9:06 am on 26 November 2015

Fonterra and Greenpeace will meet next week to discuss concerns about palm kernel expeller and major fires in Indonesia.

This picture taken on September 16, 2015 shows 13-year-old Indonesian girl Asnimawati working at a palm oil plantation area in Pelalawan, Riau province in Indonesia's Sumatra island.

An Indonesian girl working at a palm oil plantation in Indonesia. Photo: AFP

Greenpeace is accusing the dairy co-operative of being directly linked to deforestation in Indonesia through the importation of palm kernel expeller or PKE, which is used primarily as a supplementry feed in the dairy industry.

Fonterra said it was a member of the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil and it sourced PKE through Wilmar International, which has a 'No deforestation, no exploitation' policy.

However, Greenpeace said that was not credible enough. The organisation recently released a report linking Wilmar to deforestation in Kalimantan.

A Fonterra spokesperson said chief executive Theo Spierings would meet Greenpeace's New Zealand executive director Russel Norman next Friday.

Fonterra said it was organising a representative from Wilmar International to be at the meeting as well.

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