Singapore issues notices to 10 Indonesia-based firms over possible haze links

Singapore has sent 10 Indonesia-based companies preventive notices over fires that may be connected to cross-border haze, Channel NewsAsia said in an Oct. 27 news article.

The probe puts consumer supply chains under scrutiny: the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil said 16.2 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil were produced in 2024, about one-fifth of global supply.

CNA said three of the companies are wood-fibre suppliers to Asia Pulp & Paper, the group behind tissue brands including Paseo and Nice. APP's enhanced Singapore Green Label certification, covering requirements such as sustainably sourced fibre, zero land burning and peatland management, has been placed under temporary restrictions.

Under those limits, APP must provide daily updates on fire hotspots and firefighting actions in concession areas run by the suppliers, CNA said. The case revives questions about whether cooking oil, soap, tissue and other routine purchases can be traced back to plantations and forests tied to haze episodes.

"With global supply chains, accountability is difficult, especially when you ask the question of where in the production chain does accountability come in," Associate Professor Jolene Lin, director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law at the National University of Singapore, told CNA.

In palm oil, certification remains partial rather than universal. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, set up in 2004 by growers, manufacturers, retailers and other participants, said in its 2026 Impact Report that about 11 million tonnes of certified sustainable palm oil, roughly two-thirds of production, moved through RSPO channels in 2024.

That leaves a gap between certified output and certified sales. CNA said the rest was sold through other schemes or as conventional palm oil, underscoring why labels can offer reassurance without proving that every ingredient avoided environmental damage.

The supply chain itself makes verification harder. Palm oil may move from plantations to mills, refineries, processors and brand owners, then be split into fractions and derivatives used across different products. Certification systems can also differ: some keep certified oil apart from conventional oil, while others allow controlled mixing.

Lin said digital tracing in Malaysia's palm oil certification scheme has improved visibility. Such tools allow "quite a lot of precision in being able to point out where a particular product was harvested from", she told CNA.

For pulp and paper, the current focus on APP suppliers recalls Singapore's 2015 haze episode. CNA said major retailers in Singapore removed products linked to APP from shelves then over alleged fire connections; the current article does not establish that APP products caused haze.

The unresolved issue is where liability begins and ends in layered supply chains. Singapore's notices indicate regulatory pressure on companies connected to fire-hit areas, while the restrictions on APP's label certification test whether reporting on hotspots and firefighting can support consumer-facing sustainability claims.

Consumers can look for certification, but the facts cited by CNA show its limits. The next evidence will come from the daily reports APP must submit on hotspots and suppression measures in supplier-managed concession areas.

Source: news article, Channel NewsAsia, Oct. 27, 2026.