Palm LAB – Palm oil Labour Assessment Builder

Palm oil is the world's most popular vegetable oil. Half of Colombian palm oil is exported, with the Netherlands as top export destination. The Netherlands and dedicated international companies, like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), have committed to trade 100% sustainable palm oil trade from Colombia.

Within the palm oil supply chain, the main risks can be identified at farm level. In Colombia, the producer population consists of 80% smallholder farmers. Despite progress in recent years, labour conditions in the palm oil sector are not yet at an adequate level. Informal contracts, insufficient health and safety conditions and irregular working hours are common practices among rural workers.

The project aims to build a more efficient palm oil value chain between Colombian smallholders, processors (Aceites S.A.) and traders like ADM. The project will, through the development and implementation of a data-driven tool, enable farmers and processors to plan, monitor and verify the uptake of sustainability practices with an emphasis on labour practices.

This will add speed to support producers in the supply chain of ADM and Aceites S.A., to reach compliance of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). The project will build an innovative data-driven solution, that allows rapid scaling and replications of the interventions towards the growing palm oil sector in Colombia and Latin America. It will contribute to international and local commitments to increase the share of sustainable palm oil in the value chain of food, cosmetics, personal care and energy producers.