Sustainable Coconut Oil from BASF

More than three years ago, BASF teamed up with Cargill and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to promote sustainable coconut oil and improve the living conditions of coconut farmers in the Philippines. Today, they established the world’s first certified production of copra, the dried coconut flesh needed to process coconut oil. The project is located on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

“Together with our partners, we were able to show that it is possible to specifically promote the sustainable production of high-quality coconut oil and improve the living conditions of the coconut farmers. This success allows us to look to the future with optimism,” said Harald Sauthoff, VP-global procurement natural oils and oleochemicals at BASF.


Since the project started in September 2011, more than 1,000 farmers have been trained in good agricultural practices, such as the right use of fertilizers, intercropping and replanting. This education enables them to increase their yields in the long term. Furthermore, this group received access to a newly-developed drying technology for high-quality coconut flesh and training on the standards of the Sustainable Agricultural Network (SAN).
 

As a result, 300 small farmers from the region now produce the world's first Rainforest Alliance certified copra meeting the standards of the SAN. The recognized certification system helps them to improve social and environmental standards and increases their revenues as BASF and Cargill pay a premium for high quality and certified copra. Furthermore, these farmers were supported in forming legal producer entities. Their members can now access micro-credit facilities instead of having to rely on pre-financing by middlemen. It allows them to improve their profit margin by selling directly to the mill. Farmers who are participating in all of these joint activities are able to increase their income by at least 15%, according to BASF.