Switzerland urged to declare palm oil in non-food products
Malaysia is the second leading producer of palm oil worldwide, after Indonesia.
Keystone / Hotli Simanjuntak
On Monday, indigenous delegates from Malaysia and the Bruno Manser Fund presented a petition for mandatory declaration of palm oil in non-food products. Some 12,000 signatures have been deposited with the Federal Chancellery.
This content was published on
1 minute
Keystone-SDA/ds
Español
es
Suiza debe declarar el aceite de palma en productos no alimentarios
“What the palm oil industry is doing to our rainforests is worse than deforestation,” said indigenous activist Mutang Urud, quoted in a Bruno Manser Fund press release.
About 85% of the world’s palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, according to the tropical forest protection organization. However, the cultivation of palm oil takes place at the expense of tropical forests.
Declaring palm oil in foodstuffs has been mandatory in Switzerland since 2016, but not for non-food products. However, this vegetable oil is used in many products such as candles, soaps, cosmetics, cleaning products and paints.
More
Debate
Hosted by:
Anand Chandrasekhar
How much more are you willing to pay for forest-friendly chocolate?
What ways do you think are there to make sure cocoa is sustainably sourced?
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
This content was published on
Switzerland's economy grew slightly at the start of 2024, with growth in the service sector contrasting with weak growth in industry.
Swiss employment rate rises in first quarter of 2023
This content was published on
The number of women and foreign nationals in employment increased particularly strongly, the Federal Statistical Office said on Thursday.
Coercion still an issue in Swiss welfare system, report finds
This content was published on
The rights of vulnerable people are still sometimes disregarded by the Swiss welfare system, a national research programme has found.
This content was published on
Viola Amherd has expressed her “deep shock” at the assassination attempt on Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico on Wednesday.
This content was published on
A man injured half a dozen people with knives, two of them seriously, before being arrested on Wednesday in northern Switzerland.
Switzerland to introduce flight passenger database
This content was published on
Switzerland plans to introduce a flight passenger database to collect and process personal data in a bid to combat terrorism and serious crime.
Government plans to invest over CHF16bn in Swiss rail network
This content was published on
The federal government intends to invest CHF16.4 billion ($18.1 billion) in railway infrastructure between 2025 and 2028, CHF2 billion more than for the current period.
This content was published on
The team from Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) analysed soil at plantations in Colombia, which is the world’s fourth largest palm oil producing country. They found that planting on pasture land is a much more sustainable way of harvesting the oil that…
Switzerland examines sustainable trade options with Indonesia
This content was published on
Switzerland lays foundations for roadmap to promote a sustainable means of implementing a controversial free trade agreement.
‘In Indonesia palm oil is bigger than watchmaking is for Switzerland’
This content was published on
The Indonesian ambassador to Switzerland defends the sustainability of his country’s palm oil exports amid pressure from a referendum.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.