Today, Palm oil is the most popular and most extensively traded vegetable oil globally. In 2019- 2020, palm oil consumption worldwide was above 73 million metrics. Palm oil is the highest used vegetable oil in the world. Did you know that more than half of our daily use products have palm oil in them? Starting from lipstick to ice cream, palm oil goes in everything. Here are the worldwide palm oil consumption trends.

Palm oil is extracted from pulping oil palm fruits. It is an edible vegetable oil. However, because of its versatility, it gets added to various consumer products, oleochemical products, and even animal feeds. Palm oil comprises fatty acids, esterified with glycerol. It has almost 50% saturated fatty acids, 10% polyunsaturated fatty acids, and 40% monounsaturated fatty acids. Palm oil is a rich source of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and many antioxidants. 

Palm oil stays semi-solid at room temperature and is one of the most ingenious ingredients in the world. Its useful and flexible characteristics remain to be in high demand since the 1980s. 

Its roots date back as far as thousands of years in West Africa. Red palm oil has been a part of West African culture and cuisine for the longest time, but it has existed for much longer than that. During the later part of the year 1800, historians found palm oil in a monument at Abydos from 3,000 BC. In 1900, oil palm tree plantations were established by Europeans in Central Africa. It was around the same time that European merchants introduced oil palm to the magical land of Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian climate and soil was and since then has been ideal for growing this crop. By 1930, the international business in palm oil reached 250,000 tons per year.

At Selangor, in 1917, the first premier commercial oil palm farming took place in Malaysia at Tennamaran Plantation. An accelerated augmentation of the palm oil trading business developed in the 1960s and Malaysia surfaced as the biggest oil palm yielder in the world. However, in the early 2000s, Indonesia outdid Malaysia and became the largest palm producer globally. Today, Malaysia and Indonesia are the biggest exporters of palm oil in the world and together they contribute to 85% of the world’s palm oil generation.

Palm oil is extremely popular because of the following reasons:

• Efficiency
• Great shelf life
• Versatility
• Nutrition
• Economic development and employment generation
• Competitive pricing

Efficiency

Palm oil offers an amazingly productive harvest, yielding higher oil by land area compared to any other similar vegetable oil production. Palm oil provides 35% of the vegetable oil requirement in the world while using meagrely 10% of the land. Oil palm trees are non-seasonal and can be grown and harvested all around the year. These trees produce minimum of 10 tons of palm oil fruit bunches per hectare, which is much higher compared to oil crops like rapeseed, soy, and sunflower. When we compare these numbers to other popular vegetable oils like soy and coconut oil, in terms of land, one needs 4 to 10 % of the land to produce a similar yield. The figure below shows this comparison based on the European Commission report of 2018.

Palm fruit is a rich source of oil and has approximately 56% of edible oil with no known toxicity. The mesocarp of the palm of the oil palm fruit has as high as 71 to 76% oil and the kernel has 21 to 22% oil. While palm oil makes almost 3.4 tons of oil per hectare, the oil palm kernel yields 0.4 tons of palm kernel oil per hectare and 0.4 tons of kernel expeller.

The palm kernel cake is also processed further and is utilized widely in the energy production and animal feed industry.

Great shelf life

 Most oils are sensitive to contamination because of factors like climatic oxygen. This can lead to dismissal by the consumer as oxidation gives oils a strong flavor and aftertaste. As far as palm oil is concerned, it has high levels of Vitamin E tocotrienols. These tocotrienols are potent essential antioxidants that do not let palm oil develop a foul taste. As compared to other vegetable oils, palm oil contains just traces of linolenic acid which reduces the chances of oxidized elements. This means palm oil has excellent immunity to rancidity and this quality makes palm oil the most popular frying oil. It is the most loved frying medium at homes, restaurants, and large-scale food industry.

If you would like to read more about how is palm oil made, click here. 

Palm oil has an outstanding endurance at very high temperatures, and it has a lower amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in comparison to other oils as shown in the graph below. These qualities make palm oil less predisposed to oxidative polymerization and enable its rancidity-resistance. Where many other vegetable oils tend to show an increase in thickness because of polymeric materials, palm oil retains its form and doesn’t burn easily. As palm oil does not polymerize, burn, or turn foamy, it can be re-used without any compromises in the taste. The great thing is that it helps in extending the shelf-life of foods that are fried in palm oil. This makes palm oil a popular choice for eateries, fast food joints, and the packaged food industry.

Versatility

 As discussed, palm oil holds a great shelf-life, which makes it the perfect ingredient for a wide category of products. It has been gaining notable popularity since the advent of the 90s. The food industry found palm oil derivatives to be healthy alternatives compared to harmful hydrogenated and semi-hydrogenated fats. Palm oil has no trans fat, and it is more salubrious compared to hydrogenated oils that are full of trans fat.

It stays solid at room temperature and has great stability at higher cooking temperatures, which made it a popular preference over animal fat. Palm oil turns out to be the most budget-friendly replacement for foods that are made with animal fats like lard that are popularly used in bread spreads and baked confectionery. Between the years 2011 to 2016, the worldwide fastfood business grew by 83%. Popular food franchising chains that use palm oil namely Subway, KFC, Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts, and McDonald’s saw a big boom in the number of stores. Thanks to the usage of palm oil, even the packaged-food trades went up to 138% between those years and are still as popular. 

When it comes to non-edible consumer products, sodium lauryl sulfate is made with the help of palm oil. This is a foaming agent in most hair and body application products such as shampoos, face washes, toothpastes, and soaps. The picture below shows how are various derivatives of palm used:

Yes! it is that versatile that palm oil and its variants are found in more than half of the product sold in supermarkets, including both edible and consumer goods. Here are some industries that are major users of palm oil:

• Consumer retail food
• Packaged food manufacturers
• Personal care products
• Cosmetics and make up 
• Biofuel and energy industry
• Animal feed industry
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Foodservice/service industry 
• Bakeries 

Nutrition

 Palm oil is a total fat that consists of 50% saturated fats, 40% monounsaturated fats, and 10% polyunsaturated fats. Though it is a highly saturated fat, the presence of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids makes it a well-balanced fat. 

Palm oil is home to a heavy concentration of oleic acid and lesser quantities of stearic acid and linoleic acid too. This makes palm oil less prone to risks of oxidation. Palm oil has carotenoids like alpha and beta-carotene, which aid in the production of Vitamin A in the body. It is also a rich source of Vitamin D with a large concentration of tocotrienol, an antioxidant that is very beneficial for health. Here are some of the health benefits that have made palm oil popular throughout the world:

1. It is great for brain health and is known to slow down the progression of dementia.
2. Palm oil is known to decrease LDL (bad) cholesterol and raises HDL (good) cholesterol. Studies have found that moderate consumption of palm oil can slow down heart diseases and decrease the chances of stroke.
3. Palm oil is a great way to boost Vitamin A for those who are at risk of Vitamin A deficiency. 
4. Squalene found in palm oil is a great way to boost skin health
5. The presence of Vitamin E, tocopherols, and tocotrienols helps in managing cholesterol. These antioxidants also tender palm oil a shielding factor against cancer. 

If you would like to find out more about whether palm oil is staurated or unsaturated, click here. 

Economic Development and Employment Generation

 As the palm oil industry came to countries that needed more employment opportunities, it also helped lift millions of people out of poverty, hunger, and starvation. The palm oil plantation and processing industry have generated lots of jobs for the youth, skilled labor, and women. In addition to this, it has enabled farmers to grow a profitable crop on their lands. 

The Indonesian economy owes 1.6% of GDP to the palm oil industry while this industry employs a mammoth number of 4.5 million people. As the country is a prominent exporter of palm oil, it brings a foreign exchange of over $18 billion per year. In Malaysia, the palm oil industry currently provides direct employment to 570,000 people and above 39% of plantations are held by small landowners and farmers in 2018

Just like in the case of Indonesia, even Malaysia has benefitted immensely from the cultivation and processing of palm oil. This industry has been a part of the largest deficit alleviation schemes in the world. Such economic benefits are a great contributor to the popularity of palm oil.

Competitive Pricing

The cheaper cost of production is one of the major contributors to the popularity of palm oil. Starting from the cultivation, production line, and cost of labor, everything about palm oil is cheaper than other popular vegetable oils. Oil palm tree makes a very efficient crop because of its perennial properties. It grows throughout the years and offers ample harvest on just 10% of the land requirement. When it comes to the utility, the number of effective raw material options that palm oil produced are immense. No part of the fruit goes waste during the production including the fruit, the seed, and the fibrous discard too. The countries that grow palm oil offer are home to cheaper labor. This too contributes to the price effectiveness of palm oil. 

Feeding a Global Population

The total population of the world today has reached 7.674 billion. Considering that oil palm is the most productive oil crop of the present times, it automatically becomes a vital product when it comes to supporting the increasing amount of people on this earth. The greatness of palm oil grows clearer and the popularity seems justified if we recognize that ample population in the developing economies depends on it as a reasonable and conveniently available cooking medium. For this reason, countries like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and India are the biggest consumers of palm oil. 

Palm oil is extensively used by diverse industries globally including both food and non-food industries. This popularity is because of its practical advantages, versatility, and boundless availability. Palm oil has various utilitarian properties like a semi-solid consistency, long-term stability, high-temperature index that make it a blessing for the food industry. The smooth texture, a neutral taste, the absence of odor make it the perfect and affordable ingredient in many recipes. Its long shelf life and lack of oxidation make it a popular ingredient in packaged snacks. Its fat composition and flexibility have made it a part of so many consumer items in the market.

Besides, palm oil is an extraordinary crop for the GDP of developing countries and millions of skilled laborers and small-scale farmers who bank on manufacturing palm oil for their sustenance.

Conclusion

It’s evident that palm oil serves as an effective as well as a cost-effective oil alternative. However, what one needs to understand is the damage to nature that comes with it. Hundreds and thousands of wild animals are left outside their habitat owing to the massive deforestation palm oil causes. So, if you are looking to get a better alternative, click here!