...Mars is committed to our ‘No Deforestation, No Peatland and No Exploitation’ policy and to upholding human and land rights across forest-risk supply chains.

Since the launch of our Palm Positive plan in September 2019, we have transformed how we buy palm oil to prevent deforestation and to advance respect for human rights across our suppliers’ extended supply chains...[W]e have focused on awarding longer-term contracts to suppliers who can commit to our environmental, social, and ethical expectations...

We were made aware of concerns regarding land use and Agropalma in March 2022, raised by Chain Reaction Research. We met with Agropalma to better understand the allegations and the actions they have taken, which deal with many of the same allegations as those in the letter we received from Global Witness...We are encouraging Agropalma to investigate what happened and take action as appropriate, and will monitor that process.

To create long-term change, we work with suppliers such as Agropalma, third party experts and a range of civil society stakeholders who are creating a path for robust community engagement, sustainable oil palm farming and natural resource management...[W]e helped Agropalma initiate a program with Verite focused on human rights...

Mars is committed to supporting the work to end deforestation and human rights risks in our palm oil supply chain. We believe that by simplifying our supply chain, we can engage our suppliers more meaningfully, and are doing so with Agropalma. We also understand that endemic human rights issues in the palm oil sector remain complex and too big for one company to completely solve...