BASF's Dahej site certified for production of sustainable oil palm products

Dahej now among 20 BASF sites worldwide certified according to the RSPO supply chain standard

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Last Updated : Jun 23 2017 | 1:37 PM IST

BASF’s Dahej site, along with Gebze (Turkey) facility, have been certified for the production of sustainable oil palm products. “Two more BASF Group’s production plants have received the Supply Chain Certificate of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The certification of the two plants - Dahej (Gujarat, India) and Gebze (Turkey) - helps further strengthen BASF’s operations network for certified palm products,” said the company in a press statement on the occasion of the RSPO’s fifth annual European Roundtable in London.

At 20 locations around the world, including Dahej, BASF manufactures certified ingredients for the cosmetics, detergent and cleaning agent industries, from products derived from sustainable palm oil sources.

“Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in South Asia. BASF is committed to providing local customers with sustainable palm products. With our site in Dahej, India, now certified according to the RSPO supply chain standard, we are able to offer the optimal conditions required for customers to change over to certified ingredients and therefore jointly transform the market towards sustainable products along the entire value chain,” said Rahul Tilve, vice president operations, care chemicals, Asia Pacific.

BASF is one of the largest global manufacturers of ingredients for cosmetic products, detergents and cleaning agents as well as food performance ingredients. For the manufacture of these products, mainly palm kernel oil and its derivatives and to a lesser extent palm oil, are used. Certification according to the RSPO Mass Balance Module allows the mixing of certified sustainable oil palm products with non-certified products. The Mass Balance supply chain administratively monitors the trade of RSPO certified palm oil and its derivatives throughout the entire supply chain, as a driver for mainstream trade in sustainable palm oil.

In the past year, BASF globally has doubled its sales of products based on certified palm kernel oil. BASF processed a total of 508,000 tons of palm-based raw materials in 2016. BASF is thus one of the largest processors of palm products worldwide.

Each year, 71 million tons of palm products are manufactured globally. Currently, around ten percent of this is palm kernel oil. This represents approximately seven million tons of palm kernel oil, of which only about 1.3 million tons are currently RSPO-certified. For many years, BASF has been advocating to make sustainable oil palm products the industry standard in the cosmetics, detergents and cleaning agent industries. BASF has been a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) since 2004 and also joined the High Carbon Stock Steering Group in 2016 to promote the industry activities for forest conservation.