Supporting sustainable agriculture – Barry Callebaut switching to RSPO-certified palm oil for compounds and fillings

• All Barry Callebaut factories in Europe started the switch to fully segregated 100% RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil for compounds and fillings as of January 2013
  
• Plants in Asia-Pacific and North America also getting ready to offer solutions tailored to meet increasing customer needs for sustainably grown food products
  
• Move underscores Barry Callebaut’s commitment to fulfilling increasing customer requirements for sustainable palm oil

Zurich/Switzerland, January 23, 2013 – Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products, will use fully segregated palm oil from sustainable production certified 100% by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for compounds and fillings in all its factories in Europe starting as of January 2013. In Asia-Pacific, three Barry Callebaut plants are already certified and able to offer RSPO-certified palm oil on a mass balance basis. The ingredients are available at customer request.

Barry Callebaut Americas has also initiated a sustainable palm oil program, and working towards being able to offer customers mass balance sustainable palm oil during the course of 2013 if and when requested.

“The demand for food products produced in a responsible way continues to grow, and we’re seeing this as well in our compound and fillings business with an increasing number of customers requiring sustainable palm oil,” said Steven Retzlaff, President Global Sourcing & Cocoa. “With this move to RSPO-certified palm oil for our compounds and fillings we will be able to more efficiently meet our customers’ needs and at the same time support sustainable agriculture that safeguards the environment in tropical regions.”

Compounds and fillings contain vegetable fats, such as palm oil, in place of cocoa butter. In addition to its chocolate products, Barry Callebaut offers a range of dark, milk and white compound products, as well as a variety of fillings for bakery, pastry, biscuit and confectionery applications.

The RSPO is a not-for-profit association created in 2004 to promote the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. A key requirement of RSPO certification is that palm oil production cannot take place in primary forests or in high conservation value areas.

Barry Callebaut has been an approved member of RSPO since June 6, 2011. For more information on RSPO, please see: www.rspo.org

-End-

Barry Callebaut (www.barry-callebaut.com):
With annual sales of about CHF 4.8 billion (EUR 4.0 billion / USD 5.2 billion) for fiscal year 2011/12, Zurich-based Barry Callebaut is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate – from the cocoa bean to the finest chocolate product. Barry Callebaut is present in 30 countries, operates around 45 production facilities and employs a diverse and dedicated workforce of about 6,000 people. Barry Callebaut serves the entire food industry focusing on industrial food manufacturers, artisans and professional users of chocolate (such as chocolatiers, pastry chefs or bakers), the latter with its two global brands Callebaut® and Cacao Barry®. Barry Callebaut is the global leader in cocoa and chocolate innovations and provides a comprehensive range of services in the fields of product development, processing, training and marketing. Cost leadership is another important reason why global as well as local food manufacturers work together with Barry Callebaut. Through its broad range of sustainability initiatives and research activities, the company works with farmers, farmer organizations and other partners to help ensure future supplies of cocoa and improve farmer livelihoods.

About RSPO

In response to the urgent and pressing global call for sustainably produced palm oil, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with a satellite office in Jakarta.
RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry – oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs and social or developmental NGOs – to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.
Such multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Executive Board and project level Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the "roundtable" by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group to bring group-specific agendas to the roundtable, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders and business competitors to work together towards a common objective and making decisions by consensus.

 
For more information, please contact:

Contact for RSPO Secretariat:
Anne Gabriel, Communications Director | T: +603-22012053 | [email protected]

Contact for Europe:
Giovanni Colombo, Hill+Knowlton Strategies | T: +32 473 844 903 or +32 (0)2 231 50 19 | [email protected]

Contact for Indonesia:
Desi Kusumadewi, RSPO Indonesia Director | T: +62 21 5794 0222 | [email protected]

Contact for India:
Arneeta Vasudeva, Hill+Knowlton Strategies | T: +91-124-4967316 | [email protected]

Contact for China:
Peter Headden, Hill+Knowlton Strategies | T: (86 10) 5861 7597 | [email protected]