Cargill is building a new USD 200 m palm oil refinery in Lampung/Indonesia. Indonesia is currently the largest producer and exporter of palm oil.  

The development plans tie into the company’s goal to scale its sustainable palm supply chain and provide verified deforestation-free products to customers. The new refinery will play a key role in connecting the global agribusiness’ traceable crude palm oil production in Indonesia to demands in North America and Europe, through a fully integrated supply chain “from plantation to customer.” Construction for the new state-of-the-art facility has commenced and operations are expected to be completed in late 2022.

While deemed nutritious and highly functional, palm oil still remains hotly contested against the benchmarks of environmental sustainability as it has been frequently linked to deforestation practices. The majority of palm oil companies still do not report basic information on how they are monitoring deforestation in either their own or their suppliers’ operations, according to reports by the international conservation charity Zoological Society of London.