BASF says it is the first chemicals supplier to offer personal care ingredients based on certified sustainable coconut oil after certification of its production site in Cassina Rizzardi, Italy.
The German company was certified according to the Rainforest Alliance Mass Balance Coconut certification scheme.
Mass balance (MB) is a supply chain model that fosters the physical flow of certified raw materials within the supply chains, while the farmers benefit from selling Rainforest Alliance Certified coconuts and copra.
“With the certification of our first production site and the offer of Rainforest Alliance Certified personal care ingredients to our customers, amongst palm and castor oil, we have established another supply chain based on renewables,” said Jutta Stute, sustainability manager of BASF’s Care Chemicals division.
“We have thus taken an important step in transforming the market towards certified, sustainably sourced oleochemicals”, she added.
The certification of coconut oil was made possible by a development partnership between BASF, Cargill, Procter & Gamble Company and the German government agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH plus support from the Philippine Coconut Authority.
The objective of the project was to increase the income and economic self-sufficiency of smallholder coconut farmers in the Philippines and Indonesia by promoting a sustainable certified coconut oil supply chain.
Between November 2015 and October 2018 more than 4,100 coconut farmers were trained in good agricultural practice (GAP), good processing practice as well as farm management.
About 1,600 farmers received additional training and have been certified according to the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard.
Farmers who were trained and certified have, on average, a 47% higher income than farmers who did not participate in the programme.
