Dinant expands community engagement program in Lean

*** MEDIA RELEASE *** Local Communities Providing Positive Feedback As part of its expanding social engagement program in Honduras, Corporación Dinant met recently with community leaders in Lean to discuss the company’s impact on local neighborhoods and to find better ways to live and work together. Led by a professional social liaison worker based at the heart of neighborhoods near the company’s African Palm plantations, extraction mill and oil refinery, a discussion was held on Dinant’s adherence to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, an internationally accepted benchmark that strictly governs the vetting and recruitment of security guards and compulsory guard training on human rights and the proportionate use of force. Company spokesman, Roger Pineda, commented, “Dinant’s commitment to the Voluntary Principles has been very positively received by local community leaders in Lean, particularly our decision to remove all firearms from security guards at our plantations and extraction mill, a policy of which everybody – especially the guards and their families - appears to be extremely supportive.” Dinant also used the meeting to invite feedback on the company’s local Community Grievance Mechanism for Lean, a process that was established in collaboration with community leaders to provide members of the public with simple, safe and reliable ways of communicating with the company. Mr. Pineda continued, “Local people in Lean are telling us that the Community Grievance Mechanism is working well so far and that the ability of people impacted by our operations to talk to us personally or anonymously in ways that are convenient to them is particularly welcomed. That is crucial to Dinant because we want to recognize, take responsibility for, and fix our mistakes professionally and openly, and learn from them. That means listening to local communities, answering their questions, and genuinely thinking hard about improvements we can make.” In recent years, Dinant has invested significantly in modernizing its security procedures, environmental practices and community engagement programs. Dinant will continue to hold community meetings in Lean, and throughout communities near the company’s facilities in Comayagua, San Pedro Sula and the Aguán. About Corporación Dinant Dinant is a family-owned consumer products manufacturer founded in Honduras in 1960. Its products are sold across Central America and the Dominican Republic, and exported to global markets. Dinant employs 8,000 people, supports over 22,000 livelihoods, generates millions of US dollars in exports for the Honduran economy, and contributes significantly to all communities in which it operates. Dinant rigorously benchmarks its operations against stringent international standards regarding the economic, environmental and social impact of its African Palm oil business. All Dinant facilities in Honduras have been awarded ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18001 status as a mark of their progress in environmental management and occupational health & safety. Tegucigalpa, Honduras, January 14, 2015 Roger Pineda, roger.pineda@dinant.com , +(504) 2239-8800

Dinant expands community engagement program in Lean

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