World Markets for Vegetable Oils: Status and Prospects

Excerpt

Vegetable oils are the major feedstock for biodiesel production in calendar year 2015. In that year 8.7 Mill. t of palm oil used thus accounted for 29.2% of all feedstock used for biodiesel production (including HVO). In addition, 7.7 Mill. t of soy oil (28.5%) and 7.0 Mill. t of rapeseed oil (23.6%) was used as a feedstock. Additionally, tallow is an important feedstock for biodiesel production at 2.26 Mill. t in 2015. On top of that, approximately 2.9 Mill. t of used cooking oil was consumed for biodiesel. This entry analyzes the development of world supply and demand of 13 vegetable oils as well as of 4 animal fats. But special focus is given to the four major oils, i.e., palm oil, soy oil, rapeseed oil, and sunflower oil. During the past 20 years, world consumption of 17 oils and fats more than doubled from 92.9 Mill. t in 1995 to 204.3 Mill. t in the year 2015. By far most of the growth in the past 20 years was for edible purposes, primarily in Asia and Africa, caused by further population growth and rising consumption per person (on account of changed diets and rising income levels). The annual increases in total consumption of all 17 oils and fats accelerated since 2004, partly due to a boost in biodiesel production. However, government targets for a further expansion in biodiesel consumption are very ambitious in Indonesia, Brazil, the USA, and other countries for the years ahead. It remains to be seen whether this additional demand can be satisfied and whether and to what extent higher prices are needed to accomplish this task of total demand satisfaction, including that in the food industries. There is the possibility that consumers worldwide in their effort to cover food demand (primarily in the low-income developing countries) will have to pay considerably higher prices of oils and fats, if biodiesel consumption mandates are increased too rapidly and/or if yields of agricultural production per hectare cannot be raised sufficiently. In this article tentative projections are also given for the year 2025. …