Permata Group was recently made aware of the report by Rainforest Action Network (RAN) titled:
“New Palm Oil Mills Threaten Orangutan Capital of the World” where allegation of supporting deforestation was made against one of our suppliers: PT. Aceh Trumon Anugerah Kita (ATAK) and by extension us.

We note that the report consider PT. ATAK “may” contribute to deforestation because it is a new palm oil mill established in a high risk landscape near the Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve.

We have previously engaged with PT ATAK when they first entered our supply chain. The engagement entailed asking them to:

1. Sign our supplier code of conduct (including NDPE clauses)
2. Sign a declaration that they will not purchase palm fruits from a list of banned suppliers
3. Fill in Permata’s supplier questionnaires
4. Provide traceability to plantation (TTP) data

Over time we have also routinely engaged with them when we need to update the list of banned suppliers to them and when we need them to update their supplier questionnaires and TTP data.

PT. ATAK has been responsive to our engagement efforts and we did not encounter difficulties in obtaining data and information. Nevertheless, in light of this report we have arranged another meeting to re-emphasize our commitment to NDPE and our expectation for our suppliers to fully comply with our NDPE policy.

While we understood the argument that building a new palm oil mill may help fuel deforestation, we would like to caution against erecting barrier to entry into oil palm milling business in the area. A new mill does not necessarily mean more deforestation. More competition could be beneficial to the existing farmers especially smallholders in the form of better FFB price.

Permata Group would also like to take this opportunity to provide clarification to some inaccurate information contained in the article. We would like to explain that while in 2020 miscommunication and lack of coordination resulted in us sourcing from non-compliant suppliers such as Kallista Alam and Surya Panen Subur, we have since removed them from our supply chain and have set up mechanism to prevent this from happening again. Please find our response to the 2020 RAN report.

Additionally the report mentioned that Permata Group has been called out as a major leakage refinery in a linked Chain Reaction Research report. However back in 2020, Permata Group had provided clarification and correction to Chain Reaction Research which had accordingly revised their report and published a short article on this.

Finally, Permata Group would like to reiterate our commitment to No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation policy as is elucidated in our Sustainability Policy. We believe that our approach and our efforts while imperfect have allowed us to build a deforestation free supply chain. We stand ready to welcome inputs and collaborations from other parties.