Palm oil is in everything—your shampoo, cookies, lipstick, and instant noodles. It’s also the poster child for deforestation. Starting December 30, 2025, every palm-derived ingredient needs deforestation-free proof. For the world’s most efficient oil crop and its most controversial, EUDR is judgment day.

Why Palm Oil Is EUDR Enemy #1

Palm oil drives deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, the biodiversity hotspots everyone’s trying to save. The facts are brutal:

• 50% of packaged products contain palm oil.
• 85% comes from Indonesia and Malaysia.
• Plantations often replace pristine rainforest.
• Supply chains involve thousands of smallholders and mills.

The Palm Oil Traceability Nightmare

Your cosmetic cream might contain palm oil from:

• 20+ different plantations.
• 5+ processing mills.
• 3+ refineries.
• Multiple countries and ownership structures.

Each step blends sources, making traceability nearly impossible with traditional methods.

What Makes Palm Different

• Mill Aggregation: Thousands of smallholders deliver to central mills that process mixed fruit.
• Refinement Blending: Crude palm oil from various mills gets mixed during refining.
• Derivative Products: Palm oil becomes 200+ different ingredients with different supply chains.
• Smallholder Complexity: 40% comes from farmers with 2-hectare plots.
• Third-Party Oversight: Unlike other commodities, palm oil relies heavily on third-party certifiers and auditors. Under EUDR, you can’t outsource your due diligence; the final responsibility is yours.

Palm Oil’s Common Compliance Failures

• Focusing only on plantations, ignoring mill and refinery compliance.
• Not mapping smallholder suppliers (the “last mile” problem).
• Assuming RSPO certification equals EUDR compliance (it doesn’t).
• Overlooking palm kernel oil (different supply chain than palm oil).
• Believing that self-reporting is enough. Without independent verification of your data, the claims you make about your supply chain won’t hold up to scrutiny.

The Business Case for Clean Palm

Sustainable palm oil commands 10-15% premiums. Major brands are committing to deforestation-free sourcing. Early movers gain competitive advantage while late adopters face supply shortages.

Making Palm Oil Work

Stop assuming your palm oil is compliant. The real challenge is beyond the refinery - in tracing every shipment back to thousands of smallholders and their individual plots.

n’entropy traces palm oil from plantation to product, even if you are working with smallholder cooperatives - monitoring plantation expansion in real-time is easy. We give you a single platform to manage complex supply chains, mitigate risk, and prove your product’s compliance, turning palm oil from a liability into a brand asset.