Palm oil

Palm oil is used mainly as a cooking oil but also in margarine, shortenings (cakes, biscuits), soap, cosmetics, lubricants and increasingly in bio-diesel.

Palm oil has the lowest cost of production and is the most productive of all the major vegetable oils. More than 7 tonnes per hectare per annum of crude palm oil (“CPO”) can be produced, compared with around 0.5 tonnes for its main rival, soybean oil. In addition to the CPO, a further 1.5 tonnes per hectare per annum of palm kernels can be extracted from the fruits, which in turn can be used to produce some 0.6 tonnes of palm kernel oil.

Palm oil is now the world’s largest vegetable oil. Annual production runs at 45.9 million tonnes: 26.8% of global production of major vegetable oils. Soybean oil is the second largest with 40.1 million tonnes (23.3%). Palm-kernel oil accounts for a further 5.3 million tonnes (3.1%).

Source: Oil World  (26 Feb 2010, No.8 Vol 53)