Equatorial Palm Oil plc (EPO) is a palm oil company from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It is listed on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

(AIM) of the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

. Equatorial Palm Oil plc was founded in 2005. Effective 20 December 2013, KL-Kepong International Ltd, a wholly owned unit of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad acquired 63.181% interest in Equatorial Palm Oil PLC. Major brands including Kellogg's,

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

, and

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

have been reported as direct or indirect consumers of KLK palm oil.

Activity in Liberia

It has a concession in Grand Bassa, Rivercess and Sinoe Counties in Liberia of 169,000 hectares, including 1000 hectares of plantation land in 2010. It holds interests in 34,398 hectares of land at Palm Bay area; 54,550 hectares of land at Butaw area; and 80,000 hectares of land in River Cess County. Hectares of its plantation area in Liberia were set on fire in the course of a land dispute with locals. Some locals have accused the company of not putting people originating in the area into top jobs. Residents have often accused the district’s representative, Hon. Robertson Siawaye and others politicians of plotting against them and siding with the company to take away their land.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, 29 October 1938) is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa. Sirleaf was born in Monro ...

said that they can rest assure that there would be no further expansion by EPO. EPO is accused of involvement in the

arbitrary arrest Arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention are the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of ...

and assault of Liberian community members who claim that they were resisting EPO's efforts to take their land. In September 2013, officers from the EPO security team and the Liberian Police reportedly worked together to assault and beat Jogbahn community members who were peacefully protesting the company's operations. On 13 January 2021, Equatorial Palm Oil PLC changed its name to Capital Metals PLC. The Company is now engaged in the exploration and development of mineral sands resources in Sri Lanka.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Food and drink companies of the United Kingdom Palm oil production in Liberia Palm oil production in Malaysia Companies based in the City of Westminster Food and drink companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in England British companies established in 2005 Agriculture companies established in 2005