Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings will meet with Greenpeace next week to discuss concerns New Zealand dairy farmers may be contributing to massive forest fires in Indonesia.
Fonterra agreed to the meeting on Friday in the wake of a Greenpeace investigation that suggested Fonterra supplier Wilmar had bought palm kernel expeller (PKE) from at least two plantations that had been involved in burning protected forests and destroying orang-utan habitats.
READ MORE: Greenpeace says Fonterra's defence on PKE undermined by report
New Zealand companies, including Fonterra, imported about 2.2 million tonnes of PKE last year, primarily for sale as a supplementary feed for dairy cows. That was up from imports of about 96,0000 tonnes in 2003, prior to the dairying boom.
Singapore-based Wilmar would not comment on whether any of that feed might have come from plantations implicated by Greenpeace's investigations.