Blogs: Communities

Shining a light on the extraordinary, everyday lives of the people transforming the palm oil sector.

Palm oil is perhaps the world’s most misunderstood ingredient and food crop. It is an essential part of an enormous range of products which we all use or eat every day. Despite this, its value and importance often go unrecognised, and the people involved in its farming are often under-appreciated. At Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), we believe it is time for the story of palm oil, and particularly the story of the extraordinary people behind this crop, to be told.

In our daily work, as a palm oil grower, producer, distributor, trader, and seller, we work with the people for whom palm oil is an essential component of their lives; the people to whom palm oil is the centre of their livelihoods; the people for whom palm oil forms the bedrock of their families and communities; and the people who are driving change in the industry and are writing the future of sustainable palm oil.

Our Extraordinary Everyday series shines a light on those driving the future of the industry; from the farmers and the sustainability officers at the start of the palm oil journey to the food technologists and engineers at the end.

You would be hard pressed to meet an Indonesian without some personal or family connection to the palm oil industry, as the largest export earner and employer of some 16 million people (direct and indirect), it is an integral part of the country’s economy. Extraordinary Everyday is therefore an important story to tell on behalf of Indonesia, as well as the industry.

This is an exciting time for the palm oil industry, with sustainability, traceability and transparency at the centre of a rapid change that is underway. Thousands of people are helping to make that transformation possible, every day within GAR, and across Indonesia. A future of sustainably grown, positively-received palm oil—not only would that be extraordinary but it is also absolutely within our grasp.

Click here to discover stories behind the extraordinary, everyday lives of the people transforming the palm oil sector.