BASF Expands Sustainable Palm Supply

GERMANY: BASF production sites in Gebze, Turkey and Dahej, India have received the Supply Chain Certificate of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). As a result, BASF now manufactures certified ingredients at 20 locations around the world for the cosmetic, detergent and cleaning agent industries. BASF made the announcement at RSPO’s fifth annual European Roundtable in London. In the past year, BASF has virtually doubled its sales of certified ingredients based on palm kernel oil. Altogether, the company processed a total of 508,000 tons of palm-based raw materials. BASF is one of the largest processors of palm products worldwide.


“With our sites in Turkey and India, we are able to offer the optimal conditions required for changing over to certified ingredients to our customers in all key regions. It all depends just how quickly we can jointly transform the market to sustainable products along the entire value chain,” said Jan-Peter Sander, senior vice president BASF Personal Care Europe. “Sustainability is also becoming increasingly important for manufacturers and consumers in regions such as South Asia.”


BASF is one of the largest global manufacturers of ingredients for cosmetic products, detergents and cleaning agents as well as foodstuffs. For the manufacture of these products, mainly palm kernel oil and its derivatives—as well as to a lesser extent palm oil—are used. In Europe, the Personal Care business unit currently offers about 120 ingredients based on palm kernel oil, which have been certified according to the RSPO “mass balance” module.