New Britain Palm Oil has a scored a second fillip in a month for the sustainable palm oil movement, just as conservationists condemned industrial users of the commodity for failing to live up to their commitments.

The plantations group has signed a two-year deal to supply palm oil to United Biscuits, the owner of brands including Jaffa Cakes and Penguin, which has committed to having all its biscuits made with sustainable palm oil by the middle of next year.

The contract comes three weeks after New Britain, which is bassed in Papua New Guinea, won a £100m supply deal from Ferrero, the Italian chocolate maker, but is the first agreed for a UK refinery, in Liverpool, set to open in the spring.

New Britain, besides offering palm oil from plantations viewed as sustainable, is developing control of the whole supply chain to ensure that its product is not contaminated with oil from other sources.

Animals threatened 

Palm oil has attracted increasing controversy over claims that many plantations are developed on land cleared from primary forest.

"The loss of forest in Indonesia is threatening the survival of species such as the orang-utan, the Sumatran tiger, rhino and elephant," according to WWF, the conservation charity.

"Forest loss and the draining of peatlands for palm oil plantations is also contributing to climate change."

However, while protesters have scored some notable successes against companies such as Cadbury New Zealand, which has stopped using non-sustainable palm oil in Dairy Milk chocolate, many environmentalists have complained at the slow progress of the movement.

WWF, which in May revealed that only a small percentage of sustainable palm oil was being bought, on Friday unveiled a survey of European industrial palm oil users showing that only "a handful are showing real progress in their commitments to buy and use sustainable palm oil".

"The majority, contrary to their commitments, are failing to buy the product in spite of its availability," the charity said.

'Important trend' 

Nonetheless, New Britain's business model has gained some support in the City, where KBC Peel Hunt said Friday's deal "further differentiates" the company "and demonstrates the benefit of having fully traceable, sustainable palm oil".

"We see this as an important trend for the company in establishing itself as a differentiated, premium player in the palm oil industry," the broker added, saying New Britain stock looked "good value".

The shares closed up 2.5p at 355p in London.