SMART says confident of winning back Unilever and Nestle

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian palm oil giant PT SMART Tbk said on Tuesday it was confident of winning back Unilever and Nestle as buyers of its palm oil after an environmental audit of its operations.

Unilever and Nestle dropped SMART as a supplier, while Cargill has threatened to stop buying from SMART, after a series of Greenpeace reports saying the firm was clearing peatland and high conservation value forests.

"We are fairly confident," said Harry Hanawi, corporate affairs director for SMART.

"I just received a call from Nestle. They said they are going to verify and study the report and get back to us. They sound quite positive. Very very positive."

SMART said earlier on Tuesday the audit of its palm oil operations showed it was not responsible for destroying primary forests and orangutan habitats, disputing the accusations by Greenpeace.

(Reporting by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)