French Farmers Threaten to Block Refineries in Protest Against Palm Oil Use

France’s largest farmer’s union FNSEA has called for the country’s oil refineries to be blocked from June 10 in protest against the government allowing French oil and gas refiner Total to use palm oil to produce biodiesel at its new La Mede refinery. French farmers who grow crops such as rapeseed which is also used for biodiesel production were concerned that allowing cheaper palm oil imports to be used for biodiesel would result in unfair competition and work against biofuels environmental goals.  

Total said it would continue talks with the farmers and that it had decided to purchase 50,000 tons/year of French rapeseed oil for the 650,000 tons/year La Mede refinery.  The launch of the plant was still expected to take place in early September despite FNSEA’s blockade calls, the company added. The facility’s feedstock would comprise 60-70% vegetable oils, with a limit of 300,000 tons/year of palm oil and the rest would come from other plants, such as rapeseed, sunflower and corn.  The remaining 30-40% would come from animal fats, used cooking oil, and residues from used palm oil.