Nutella - Breakfast for Champions?

Nutella – a hazelnut-based sweet spread - is immensely popular in Italy, as well as the rest of Europe and around the world. Its exact ingredients are, as you might expect, are a closely guarded secret, but according to two laboratories that analysed the spread for Greenpeace, it is composed of 31% vegetable oils, most of which is palm oil.

Aside from pushing species, such as the orang-utan of Borneo, Indonesia, to the brink of extinction, the destruction of the world’s rainforests and peatlands to make way for increased palm-oil plantations is driving climate change - every time the rainforest is trashed, huge amounts of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. The destruction of rainforests accounts for a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions – that’s more than all the planes, trains and automobiles in the world.

We sent along the “Borneo football team” – eleven orang-utans! – to explain. Arriving at the Italian squad’s official training centre, the orang-utans presented the footballers with an alternative “breakfast for champions” – a chocolate cream called Deforestazione Zero – and asked them to support our call for Zero Deforestation!

Greenpeace has been calling on Ferrero to declare its purchasing policy on palm oil, to assure us and its customers that Nutella is not being produced from palm oil that comes from deforestation. So far, we’ve had no positive news, which is why we’re asking the Italian national team to champion the cause.

Ferrero is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an international association which has been put in charge of making the palm oil sector more sustainable. Despite the fact that the RSPO has existed since 2002, there is still no certified palm oil on the market.

Greenpeace has produced a report, “The Hidden Carbon Liability of Indonesian Palm Oil”, which highlights the urgent need for global palm oil consumers and investors to support our call for an immediate moratorium on deforestation and peatland clearance in Indonesia.

One of the major companies using palm oil in its products is Unilever, which heads up the RSPO. Using Unilever's palm oil supply chains as a case study to help quantify the carbon liability and collateral risks associated with the Indonesian palm oil sector, the report shows how, by buying palm oil from suppliers who account for more than one-third of Indonesia's palm oil production, companies - including Ferrero and other major players such as Nestlé, Procter & Gamble and Kraft - are increasing their potential carbon liability and thus leaving investors exposed to potentially significant levels of hidden risk, compromising long-term financial and brand stability.

Following Greenpeace pressure, Unilever has recognised the global problems associated with palm oil expansion and the need for drastic reform to this sector. Unilever has taken a bold move in supporting our call for an immediate moratorium on deforestation and peatland clearance. While Unilever's position is strengthened by its status as the largest single palm oil consumer in the world, companies like Ferrero need to join with Unilever, support the moratorium and spread the call for a halt to deforestation.