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Commodity Profile – Palm Oil
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Palm Oil is also known as palm fruit oil. It is an expeller-pressed food oil, obtained
from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) of oil palm cultivated in plantations. Palm oil is
the second largest edible oil and accounts for approximately 23 per cent of the
world's fats and oil supply. Since 80 per cent of palm produced is used in food
- its nutritional properties are of extreme importance. Palm oil is available in
about 15 different grades, ranging from crude to semi-refined, refined, crude fractionated,
refined fractionated oil and refinery by-products. Crude Palm Oil (CPO), Crude Palmolein,
RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) Palm Oil, RBD Palmolein and Crude Palm Kernel
Oil (CPKO) are the various edible forms of palm oil traded in the market.
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Economic importance
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Palm oil has major applications in food manufacturing and in the chemical, cosmetic
and pharmaceutical industries.
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Palm oil olein and stearin are popularly used worldwide in making margarine, shortenings
and confectionery, and in frying snack foods.
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It also gives fried products a longer shelf life.
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It has non-edible applications that include the manufacture of soaps, biodegradable
detergents, and in oleochemical products such as fatty acids, and other derivatives
for the manufacture of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and industrial products.
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Global Scenario
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Palm oil dominates the global vegetable oil export trade. Malaysia and Indonesia
are the two largest producers of palm oil accounting for 35.7Mt of world production,
or 87% in 2007/08. Indonesia has nearly quadrupled output in the past decade from
5Mt in 1997/98 to around 18.3Mt in 2007/08 making it the largest producer of palm
oil in the world. India, China, Pakistan, the Middle-East countries and the European
Union are the major importers of the commodity. India and China are the largest
importers of Asian palm oil.
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Domestic Scenario
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India, which is one of the largest importer and consumer of edible oils in the World,
imports nearly 3 million tons of palm oil annually (mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia).
This implies that the country is dependent on palm oil imports for over 25% of its
annual edible requirement. The domestic production is very meager, accounting for
approximately 0.2% share in the world’s total production. Kerala is the largest
palm producing state in India.
India imports crude palm oil mainly from Indonesia while from Malaysia it imports
mostly refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm olein.
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 Product Profile
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