Nestle to stop using rain-forest palm oil, amid Facebook fracas

TheMarker Correspondent and Agencies

Nestle, the world's biggest food conglomerate, said it had stopped buying palm oil from Indonesia's Sinar Mas due to concerns about rain-forest destruction, following a similar move by consumer goods firm Unilever.

Nestle's announcement came after Greenpeace released a report on Wednesday which looked into how the company was sourcing palm oil.

Switzerland's Nestle, which uses the edible oil in its food products such as KitKat bars, said it had replaced Sinar Mas with another supplier for further shipments after conducting its own investigations into its palm oil supply chain.

"We will continue to pressure our suppliers to eliminate any sources of palm oil which are related to rain-forest destruction and to provide valid guarantees of traceability as quickly as possible," Nestle said in a statement.

The issue set off a public-relations bomb for Nestle, which chastised users of its Facebook page after Greenpeace posted a mock-up of the company's Kit Kat candy bar logo on its own Web site and Facebook members adopted the graphic as their profile picture. Nestle's moderator wrote: "We welcome your comments, but please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic - they will be deleted."