Palm Oil: 10 Million Indonesian’s Prepare to Strike Back

(what is this, actually? Sinar Mas and its friends threaten Nestlé with a cosumer boycott of 10 mio people. It may be taken for granted that all - I mean ALL - Indonesians are consumers of at least some Nestlé's products. 10 mio people means that Sinar Mas and friends believe they may have a say on the consumption patterns of maximum about 4 % (four percent) of Indonesian consumers (probably for a couple of weeks...). It's a threat. But not a very convincing one.)

Palm Oil – The Green Development Oil Newsletter, Issue 6, March 2010

10 Million Indonesian’s Prepare to Strike Back

Indonesian palm oil producers have hit back against the Nestlé ban on Sinar Mas palm oil, stating a willingness to boycott Nestlé products following the company’s capitulation to Greenpeace’s intimidation tactics.

In a new report entitled “Caught Red Handed: How Nestlé’s use of palm oil having a devastating impact on rainforests, the climate and orang-utans,” Greenpeace claims that palm oil produced by Sinar Mas, which they claim is devastating the Indonesian rainforest, was being used extensively in Nestlé products including Kit Kat.

While Nestlé has been quick to sell out Indonesia’s poor to protect its corporate image, Indonesian palm oil producers may soon return fire.

A recent statement by the Association of Indonesian Oil Palm Farmers (Apkasindo) flagged a possible boycott of Nestlé products by 10 million Indonesians, citing the devastating impact Nestlé’s actions would have on millions of Indonesian palm oil producers.

Nestlé’s capitulation to Greenpeace and refusal to consider the millions of Indonesians living in poverty is an indictment on the company and any claims to be socially responsible.

The claims by Greenpeace and supported by Nestlé are part of a long running campaign against Sinar Mas which is riddled with inconsistencies, exaggerations and misleading information.

Nestlé’s image as a socially responsible corporation also extends to a duty to consider the poverty stricken whose lives are harmed by their PR-driven capitulation, not just western NGOs.