We believe that the integration of sustainability is key to the success of our business and we are committed to ensuring that sustainable practices are adopted across our supply chain, from cultivation to consumption.
Apical is therefore committed to influencing and supporting our suppliers through meaningful engagements, with the aim of building a sustainable as well as a fully traceable and transparent network. This will also allow our suppliers to access the global market where demand for responsibly made products are increasing.
Apical’s Sourcing Policy was developed in 2015 to support our Sustainability Policy’s commitment to build a traceable and transparent supply chain, ensuring the following:
No deforestation of high conservation value (HCV) lands and high carbon stock (HCS) areas
Protection of new peat areas, regardless of depth
Positive socio-economy impact for people and local communities
Responsible Sourcing
Apical will only procure from suppliers who agree to comply with our policy through a written declaration. These suppliers will also need to provide basic information on their supply chain for us to perform a risk analysis based on geospatial indicators and non-spatial indicators.
Suppliers identified as higher risk will be prioritised for engagement while those who are found in violation of our Sustainability and/or Sourcing Policy will be handled through our grievance procedure.
We also seek to bring about a positive transformation in our supply chain. Through this approach, we are not only building our resilience to risks facing the business, we are also leveraging on our ability to support sustainable development where we operate.
Learn more about our Policies & Framework
Responsible Sourcing
We aim to deliver our sustainable development commitments through 5 strategic focuses including:
Traceability & Transparency
Policy Compliance & Implementation Framework
Stakeholder Relations & Grievance Management
Multi-Stakeholder Platforms & Collaborations
Delivering on Our Core Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Traceability
Responsible sourcing through supply chain traceability
As one of the largest processors and traders of palm oil in the world, we have placed sustainability strategically at the core of our business. Our approach to sustainability includes risk-based assessments for supply chain profiling, stakeholder engagement for palm oil traceability and policy compliance and support for suppliers through capacity building and recommendations on sustainable good practices.
Supply chain traceability is a fundamental first step towards producing sustainable palm oil and ensuring the reliability and quality of our raw materials. Traceability lays the groundwork for compliance with our Sustainability Policy by revealing where our supply comes from and helps us identify priority suppliers to engage with for improved agricultural practices.
There are a huge number of players along the supply chain from the moment the fruit is picked by smallholders to when it reaches us as some supply goes through middlemen. It requires enormous effort to map our supply chain down to its origin; however this is necessary to ensure the level of transparency that is expected by our customers.
A reliable and extensive sourcing network upstream enhances our ability to trace the origin of the raw materials supplied to our refineries and to monitor sustainable practices. With the commitment of senior management and guided by a comprehensive sustainability framework, we have found that an effective way forward is to involve and engage with key decision makers from diverse groups of stakeholders: plantation owners and smallholders, government authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civic groups and activists.
Our traceability efforts are categorised into traceability to Crude Palm Oil (CPO), Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO), Palm Kernel (PK) mills and traceability to plantation (Fresh Fruit Bunch suppliers).
Traceability to Mill (TTM)
As we do not own any upstream assets or facilities such as plantations and mills, we rely on third party supplying mills to provide us with raw materials such as CPO, CPKO, and PK. One of our long-term suppliers is Asian-Agri. A majority of our supplying mills are located within the provinces of Riau, North Sumatera, Jambi, and Kalimantan.
In 2015, we began gathering and verifying information about mills supplying to our refineries and achieved 100% traceability to mill in the same year. We have maintained full traceability to mill since then. We have 361 mills supplying CPO contracted as suppliers for all our refineries as of Q4 2025.
The total percentage of supply traceable to mill and traceable to Kernel Crusher Plant (KCP) is 100% as of December 2025. We have also achieved 100% traceability to mill KCP suppliers as of December 2025.
SDSR
SDSR Kernel Crushing Plant
KRNR Kernel Crushing Plant
AAJ Marunda Refinery
AAJ Tanjung Balai Refinery
KRNR
PRCR
Traceability is a fundamental requirement for Apical Sustainability management. In order to be traceable, suppliers need to provide correct information of their GPS coordinates to show their accurate location, the name of their parent company and mill, and a specific address. This traceability information provided by suppliers are verified by Apical Sustainability Team based on internal traceability verification guidance protocol. We update our Traceability Declaration Document (TDD) every quarter for the facilities above to update our sourcing information. The TDD can be accessed by stakeholders via the following list below.
Supply chain information of our refineries can be accessed in the map below. The map comprises of Apical’s network of refineries, kernel crusher, oleo chemical and biodiesel plants. By selecting the facilities on the map, you can access details of the supply into each.
Traceability to Plantation (TTP)
Mills are usually in close proximity with supplying plantations as FFB needs to be processed within 24 hours of harvest, in order to maximise the quantity and quality of oil extracted. As such, achieving traceability to a mill will provide an indication of the approximate location of their FFB suppliers. However, traceability to plantation remains challenging due to the thousands of dealers and independent smallholders involved, and the highly dynamic relationships between FFB traders and mills.
Our network of FFB suppliers comes from three main sources: estates (usually owned by mills), smallholders (often linked to mills) and dealers (who buy FFB from a wide variety of sources). Apical subscribes to the Sustainable Landscape Working Group’s (SLWG) working definition of traceability.
FFB Sources
Estimated percentage of palm oil supplied to our mills
Estate (<25 Ha and ≥ 25 Ha)
36.86%
Cooperative/Schemed/ Smallholder Groups
12.45%
Dealers (sourced from independent smallholders)
50.69%
Apical’s suppliers source from either own estates or third party plantations. Out of our total number of third party supplier mills, 44.27% source from their own plantations while 55.73% source from third party plantations.
In terms of volume of FFB supplied to Apical, 25.50% sourced from third party supplier mills’ own plantations while 74.50% is sourced from third party plantations. These figures are as of December 2025.
As of December 2025, has achieved 99.98% traceability to plantation for Crude Palm Oil (CPO), 100% for Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO) and 100% for Palm Kernel (PK), which has been externally verified by Control Union.
Apical subscribes to the Sustainable Landscape Working Group’s (SLWG) definition of traceability and the following data as a requirement to establish FFB traceability. We provide annual updates of our traceability work in our Sustainability Reports.
FFB Sources
Data required for FFB Traceability
Estate (<25 Ha and ≥ 25 Ha)
• Estate name• Parent company name• Certification status• % of overall FFB tonnage to mill• A GPS coordinates as a representative source location• Planted hectarage• Total concession area• FFB volume
Cooperative/Schemed/Smallholder Group
• Number of smallholders• % of overall FFB tonnage to mill• Overall FFB volume• A GPS coordinates as a representative source location• Planted hectarage
Dealers (sourced from independent smallholders)
• Dealer names (and/or dealer unique ID)
• % of overall FFB tonnage to mill
• Overall FFB volume
• GPS coordinates of first-tier dealers (office/ramp)
• Number of smallholders
• Village/sub-district of smallholders
• % of overall FFB tonnage to mill
• Overall FFB volume
• GPS coordinates of first-tier dealers (office/ramp)
• Number of smallholders
• Village/sub-district of smallholders
NDPE IRF
The Implementation Reporting Framework (IRF) is a tool that provides a shared and consistent view of progress towards No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments across the full supply base of companies throughout the supply chain. Based on a detailed set of questions, the IRF provides buyers with a consolidated view of how much of their volume is meeting NDPE commitments. The NDPE Implementation Reporting Framework (NDPE IRF) tool was developed by Proforest with support from the Palm Oil Collaboration Group (POCG).
For more information, please refer to https://www.ndpe-irf.net/.
Our Commitment
Apical is cognisant of our role and duty to ensure that we act responsibly and proactively in the sourcing and processing of palm oil in an environmentally and socially sound manner. We ensure our sources from suppliers, traders, or mills are in compliance with legal requirements and our policies.
In our endeavor to build a traceable and transparent supply chain, Apical is a member of the Active Working Group (AWG) for NDPE Implementation Reporting Framework (IRF). NDPE IRF allows Apical to understand what is required to deliver our NDPE commitments, monitor progress, identify gaps within the supply chain and implement action plan to close the gap in order to drive improvement. Since 2025, Apical has assessed its performance against both NDPE IRF version 5.8 and version 6.0.
We remain committed and will continue to responsibly manage natural resources and mitigate the environmental impact of our operations in compliance with our NDPE commitments.
We provide annual updates of our NDPE IRF scores in our Sustainability Reports.
