Indonesia May Face Palm Oil Boycott Over Fires, Paper Says
08/04/00
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Title: Indonesia May Face Palm Oil Boycott Over Fires, Paper Says
Source: © Copyright 2000
Bloomberg News.
Date: August 4, 2000
Jakarta -- Indonesia may face a palm oil boycott in the U.K. if it fails to stop companies from burning forests, Media Indonesia newspaper reported, citing Minister of Environment Sonny Keraf. The association of Indonesian palm oil producers received a warning from a U.K. association of vegetable oil producers, following pressures from the British consumers, Keraf said. The warning will likely push other industry groups, such as plywood producers, to join in the criticism, the minister was quoted as saying.
Indonesian farmers and plantation companies generate smoke pollution across parts of Southeast Asia each year when they burn thousands of acres of rainforest between May and October, when the region normally experiences dry weather, to clear land for planting crops such as oil palm and coffee.