NTUC FairPrice withdraws all paper products sourced from Asia Pulp & Paper

NTUC FairPrice (FairPrice) on Wednesday announced the withdrawal of all paper products sourced from Asia Pulp & Paper Group (APP), following notification from the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) that it has instituted a temporary restriction on the use of the "Singapore Green Label" certification for APP products.

FairPrice said it carries 14 Housebrand paper products that are certified with the Singapore Green Label. Two of these are Housebrand tissue products sourced from APP through Universal Sovereign, a licensed distributor, while the rest of the products are not affected. In addition, all 16 APP related products from the various brands FairPrice carries have also attained the Singapore Green Label certification.

Seah Kian Peng, CEO of NTUC FairPrice, said FairPrice has initiated meetings with the various parties concerned when the list of firms including APP, was named by the authorities as suspects for contributing to the haze.

"As a fair business partner, we reserved taking action pending further information and investigation by the authorities. Our decision to withdraw all APP products is a result of the temporary restriction of their Green Label certification. This reflects our conviction and commitment towards promoting and adopting sustainable practices, as we have done all these years."

Last week, SEC had requested companies with paper products certified under the Singapore Green Label Scheme to declare compliance with using sustainable materials. FairPrice was unable to sign the declaration for the two Housebrand products earlier as it was pending APP's confirmation of their compliance to SEC's requirements.

Following the temporary restriction of the Green Label notification, FairPrice has withdrawn both Housebrand products, which include FairPrice Softpack Tissue 200s and the FairPrice Gold 3 Ply Facial Tissue 140s supplied by APP. Beyond this, FairPrice will also withdraw all APP related products including Paseo, NICE and Jolly.

All APP products will be withdrawn with immediate effect and will no longer be available at all FairPrice stores by 5pm on Wednesday.