Advance Agro to sell its paper in the US

Advance Agro is to sell its Double A paper in the US, according to a company press release.

“As a company and brand that is currently available in more than 100 countries worldwide, we have looked forward to having Double A paper in the U.S. market for a long time,” said Thirawit Leetavorn, Senior Executive Vice President for Double A. “This is truly exciting for us and we would like to officially begin our U.S. relationship with a promise and a commitment to every customer to provide a paper product that is genuinely good for the environment while also high in quality.”

Unfortunately, Advance Agro is lying about the company’s impact on the environment. The press release contains several misleading statements about Advance Agro’s operations. The company claims that its raw material comes from eucalyptus trees “grown throughout agricultural communities in Thailand”. In fact, the company’s raw material comes from large scale industrial tree plantations, as well as farmer planted trees.

Advance Agro’s eucalyptus monocultures, with severe soil erosion in the foreground.

The company repeats greenwash from a report by an Australian PR company called Access Economics. Last year, I pointed out that many of the statements in the report are simply not true. For example, AA claims that its “paper from farmed trees does not require land clearing or the destruction of forests, avoiding impact to the environment.” In my article, I wrote that:

Forests were destroyed in order to establish plantations for Advance Agro’s operations. Advance Agro is part of the Soon Hua Seng group. In 1990, one hundred employees of Suan Kitti (a subsidiary of Soon Hua Seng) were arrested for illegally logging forest on 1,600 hectares of Forest Reserve land in Chachoengsao province in preparation for establishing plantations to feed Double A’s pulp mills. Suan Kitti Reforestation was also charged with illegally logging in a 4,800 hectares area in Prachinburi province.

The company has seen my article and is apparently working on a response. In the meantime, Advance Agro continues to mislead.