Palm Oil Developments No.64 (June 2016) p20-26

An Analysis of Crude Palm Oil Price against Prices of Selected Oils and Fats

Ramli Abdullah*

Among the 17 oils and fats in the world, palm oil leads in terms of production, trade and consumption. Its global production, export and consumption in 2015 were 62.79 million tonnes or 30.64% of the world production of oils and fats, 47.82 million tonnes or 57.61% of the world’s exports of oils and fats, and 61.22 million tonnes or 30.08% of the world’s consumption of oils and fats, respectively (Oil World, 2015a, Oil World, 2015b). These statistics indicate the dominance of palm oil in the sectors of production, trade and consumption, mainly due to its supply and demand factors. Its high productivity of 3.6 t ha-1 (author’s estimate) ensures stability and ready availability of the oil, and its numerous uses in food and non-food applications have been globally accepted by the world. This is evident from the large share of palm oil exports (57.61%) in the total exports of oils and fats in 2015. In terms of palm oil imports, eight countries imported more than one million tonnes in 2015, with India being the largest at about 9.53 million tonnes and Malaysia, the eight largest, at about 1.03 million tonnes (MPOB, 2016). Many other countries imported varying volumes of palm oil (Oil World, 2015a, Oil World, 2015b).





Author information:
* Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB),
6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi,
43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.
E-mail: ramlia@mpob.gov.my