The palm oil supply chain — how to make it sustainable, traceable, and inclusive

From instant noodles, ice cream, and biscuits, to cosmetics, shampoos, and detergents, palm oil can be found in nearly half of all packaged products at your local supermarket. Its numerous useful properties are what makes this odourless and colourless vegetable oil so ubiquitous in products that need to stay spreadable, remain edible while lingering on shelves, or endure high temperatures.

Squeezed from bunches of rich, red-orange oil palm fruits, or crushed from the kernel inside, palm oil comprises 40% of all vegetable oils used, and more than 80% of this oil is supplied by two countries — Malaysia and Indonesia.

It’s also a very efficient crop that produces large amounts of oil from small plots of land for much of the year, making it ideal for both smallholders and large estates. So how does palm oil get from farmer to consumer?

A global journey

As with any crop, palm oil begins ‘upstream’ on the land — a plantation, big or small, where oil palms are grown and maintained, then ripe Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) are plucked from the palm tops. Once picked, the FFBs have to be transported quickly to a mill to ensure the crop’s quality. For smallholders, it’s often a dealer who collects bunches directly from farmers and drives them to a mill.

At the mill we’re now ‘midstream’ in the supply chain, and it’s here the FFBs are sterilised, threshed, pressed, and clarified to produce Crude Palm Oil (CPO). Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is then transported to a refinery for further processing, while palm kernel is sent to a kernel crushing facility to be converted into Palm Kernel Oil (PKO). Due to their differing chemical profiles, CPO is commonly used for daily cooking or biofuels, while PKO is used for specific confectioneries or cosmetics.

At the buying, manufacturing, and distribution stage, we’re now ‘downstream’ in the supply chain and products containing palm oil are waiting patiently on shelves for consumers to do what they do.

For someone ‘downstream’ in their favourite armchair, munching merrily on chips or scooping ice cream from a bowl, the current issues with industrial production of such a versatile and useful crop can seem far removed. 

Issues with industrial palm oil production

For all its versatility and unique properties, producing palm oil unsustainably can be detrimental to the environment, rural communities, human rights, and the climate. 

The environmental and social impacts include:

• Deforestation and biodiversity loss

• Increased carbon emissions

• Economic hardship of smallholders

• Human rights and labour issues

• Lack of transparency and traceability

These impacts are reflected in the production of other global crops, and are a symptom of modern industrial agricultural practices that often disregard ecosystem health, smallholder livelihoods, and carbon footprint. 

But this is not the only approach we can take. 

The challenges to transforming the way palm oil is produced are ensuring sustainability, traceability, and smallholder support, while addressing labour and human rights issues.  

And this is where Wild Asia’s Small Producer Inclusivity & Resilience Alliance (SPIRAL) offers a real solution — a way to transform the entire supply chain, from the ground up. 

SPIRAL — an alliance of changemakers

Wild Asia’s Small Producer Inclusivity & Resilience Alliance (SPIRAL) is a regenerative farming programme that addresses a critical gap in the global sustainability movement — the link between corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) commitments and the reality of smallholder livelihoods on the ground.

SPIRAL was launched in 2020 as a unified approach for meaningful environmental and social impact in regions where palm oil is produced. By connecting key players across the palm oil value-chain through partnerships and cooperation models, we are building a truly regenerative, inclusive, and traceable palm oil supply chain. 

SPIRAL partners include Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, product manufacturers, refiners, mills, dealers and technology partners.

But our solution begins on the ground, with small producers.

Solutions for sustainable palm oil

While the world’s largest consumer goods companies have pledged to eliminate deforestation and decarbonise their supply chains, millions of smallholders remain beyond reach — constrained by capital, knowledge, and systemic barriers. 

These farmers supply a significant share of the palm oil used by global brands, yet are often excluded from the very sustainability frameworks that shape market access and finance.

Our SPIRAL  programme offers a ground-up, evidence-based, and financially efficient pathway to bridge that divide.

How we are building the future of sustainable palm oil:

• Connecting smallholders with mills and global buyers

• Ensuring traceable, deforestation-free, nature-positive production

• Scaling regenerative agriculture and climate-smart practices

• Strengthening supply chain resilience and impact validation

Find out more about how we’re transforming palm oil

Partner with us to make sustainable palm oil a reality

By becoming one of our SPIRAL partners, you will join a global alliance transforming palm oil by creating real change on the ground. 

What this means is you will: 

• Empower farmers as drivers of regeneration, and connect them with mills and global buyers in certified, traceable supply chains

• Ensure deforestation-free, nature-positive production through innovative regenerative agriculture

• Enable scalable climate action rooted in local economies

• Strengthen supply chain resilience and impact validation

• Build inclusive, truly sustainable, low-risk supply chains for the future

Together, we can continue to grow a regenerative approach and connect farmers, mills, and global brands to build a supply chain that supplies high quality palm oil, while creating verified carbon removals, protecting biodiversity, and empowering rural economies.

Our regenerative approach shows that sustainability is an investment in community resilience, long-term supply stability, and shared prosperity — not a cost.

With small, distributed investments, large, cumulative impacts can be created when aligned with local leadership and global market incentives. It is a sustainable model that benefits all.  

This is regeneration from the ground up — practical, inclusive, and built to last.