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Date Progress
October 2019 29 October 2019:

RAN’s report “Major Brands Again Caught Sourcing Deforestation-Linked Palm Oil” showed that PT Laot Bangko carried out land-clearing in the Leuser Ecosystem as recently as August 2019. The report further alleged that Bumi Daya Agrotamas (BDA), Musim Mas’ supplier, has continued to source from PT Laot Bangko.
After the publication of the RAN report, we immediately reached out to BDA to verify the information.

BDA informed us that at first, they were not aware of the land clearing being carried out by PT Laot Bangko inside the Leuser Ecosystem. BDA knew that PT Laot Bangko possessed a Land Use Title (Hak Guna Usaha) which showed legality under state regulations.

BDA has been very cooperative and shared that they have stopped any purchases from PT Laot Bangko since September 2019. We arranged a field verification to BDA on November 2019 to verify their claims and the allegations highlighted in RAN’s report.
November 2019 One of the agenda of our field verification trip to BDA was to verify against the statement released by BDA, where they have stopped purchasing from PT Laot Bangko.

Based on the BDA’s mill records, it was confirmed that BDA had indeed stopped purchasing from PT Laot Bangko since September 2019.
March 2020 Musim Mas met with Bumi Daya Agrotamas. An action plan was agreed and it includes the following:

  1. BDA will develop a SOP for Traceability to Plantation.
  2. BDA will conduct socialization for all FFB suppliers on high risk/protected areas.
  3. BDA will develop an Agreement Letter with the FFB Suppliers that states suppliers will conduct Traceability to Plantation, and that FFB received come from areas with legal land ownership or equal rights, finally that FFB should not be from high risk/protected areas, not be related with land development in the protected areas, nor from areas with community and/or workers exploitation.
  4. BDA will stop purchasing FFB from suppliers who are unwilling to sign the Agreement Letter.
  5. BDA will conduct Traceability to Plantation (TTP).
  6. Musim Mas will monitor and verify the implementation of action plan.
October 2020
 Musim Mas contacted Bumi Daya Agrotamas to seek updates.

BDA have shown progress in their action plan as follows:

  1. BDA have developed and ratified SOP of Traceability to Plantation (TTP).
  2. BDA conducted training on the location of high-risk areas and TTP requirements; 33% of the FFB suppliers have signed an agreement letter with BDA.
  3. BDA are continuing their efforts to train all their FFB suppliers and have agreements with them; to date their suppliers are cooperative.
  4. BDA have reported 100% of TTP progress.
  5. Field verification is still unable to be conducted due to the COVID-19 situation

Overall, BDA have completed 70% of the action plan.