• Who produces oil palm fuel in Africa?
  • Corporate actors involved in the production of oil palm fuel in African countries Angola: Grupo Atlântica (Portugal), ENI (Italy) and Petrobras (Brazil) Benin: Unspecified groups from Malaysia and South Africa Cameroon: French Group Bolloré Cote d’Ivoire: SIFCA (France), Wilmar International and Olam International (Singapore), SIPEF (Belgium)
  • How has palm oil changed over the years?
  • Between 1970 and 2020, the world’s production of palm oil increased by about 40 times. Global production went from only 2 million tonnes to around 80 million tonnes. The change in global production is shown in the chart.3 The story of palm oil is less about it as an isolated commodity and more about the rising demand for vegetable oils.
  • Where does palm oil come from?
  • In the map, we see the distribution of production across the world. Small amounts of palm oil are grown in many countries, but the global market is dominated by only two: Indonesia and Malaysia. In the chart, we see the production of the palm oil plant across a number of countries. Other producers include Thailand, Colombia, and Nigeria.
  • Is palm oil a commodity?
  • The story of palm oil is less about it as an isolated commodity and more about the rising demand for vegetable oils. Palm oil is a very productive crop; as we will see later, it produces over a third of the world’s oil but uses less than a tenth of croplands devoted to oil production. It has, therefore, been a natural choice to meet this demand.