The food industry faces problems relating to the sustainability of palm oil as a food commodity. These problem areas include social, environmental, economic and health issues. The food industry also competes with increasing palm oil demands from the energy sector. This case study identifies and analyzes different perspectives regarding sustainable palm oil as a food commodity in Sweden through interviews with palm oil experts in different businesses and organizations. This study focuses on how the food retailer Axfood manages the identified views. The results show that Axfood handle the problem areas by their membership in the organization Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). At the moment are certificates bought for all their usage of palm oil, but discussions have been started to change to another palm oil certification system within the RSPO. From the results was it concluded that higher demands are placed on palm oil from the energy sector than from the food industry. Common demands need to be placed on the fat and oil industry to reach more sustainable levels of the certified oil. Sustainability has different meanings for different actors within the palm oil industry. Decreasing the usage of palm oil is part of the solution to achieving a more environmentally responsible palm oil industry.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-97335 |
Date | January 2013 |
Creators | Nilsson, Sara |
Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Tema vatten i natur och samhälle, Linköpings universitet, Filosofiska fakulteten |
Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
Format | application/pdf |
Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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