Traceability of the palm oil supply chain

Palm oil is mainly produced in Malaysia and Indonesia while the main users are India, China, Indonesia and the EU. For most of these users, the supply chain is long and complex, including overseas shipping. Procedures in this supply chain guarantee stepwise traceability as required by food safety regulations. Continuous traceability is usually not achievable. Also the RSPO trace and traceability systems do not improve this. Exception is the Identity Preserved system, however, the high costs and low volume of this system makes it only applicable for niche market products.