Palm oil

The world's most produced vegetable oil, grown on tropical tree plantations, overwhelmingly in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Oilseeds & oils · No. 92

• Not on a critical list
• HHI 4,077 · highly concentrated

The oil in your biscuits, soap and lipstick probably grew within a few degrees of the equator, in Indonesia or Malaysia.

Chart: Illustration: Palm oil

Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Oil palms grow only near the equator, take years to start yielding, then produce for decades. Fruit bunches are cut by hand and milled within a day. Output was 79.6 Mt in 2023.

Three things to know

1. Palm oil output rose from 11.4 Mt in 1990 to 79.6 Mt in 2023, nearly sevenfold.
2. Indonesia and Malaysia made 82.5% of the world's palm oil in 2023, an HHI of 4,077, among the highest of any farm commodity.
3. About half its fatty acids are saturated, so it stays semi-solid and suits frying, margarine and vanaspati without hydrogenation.

The journey

1. 1 PlantationOil palms in the humid tropics
2. 2 HarvestHeavy fruit bunches cut by hand
3. 3 MillPressed within a day to crude oil
4. 4 RefiningRefined and split into olein and stearin
5. 5 End usesFood, soaps, cosmetics and biodiesel

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