Consumption of palm oil on the rise

The consumption of palm oil in Bangladesh increased by 7 per cent in the last eight years to reach 13.5 lakh tonnes in 2021, according to findings revealed at a webinar.

The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries yesterday organised the webinar styled "Palm Oil Future Market Trend in Bangladesh".

As per the findings, in 2013, the consumption of palm oil stood at 12.6 lakh tonnes.

Palm oil meets 52 per cent of the country's edible oil demand due to prices being lower whereas around 29.3 per cent is met by imported soybean oil, 15.6 per cent by locally crushed soybean and the remaining 3.1 per cent by local mustard oil, the report said.

However, palm oil met 71 per cent of the total edible oil demand in 2013.

The country's annual consumption of edible oil currently stands at 25.95 lakh tonnes, 81 per cent of which is met through imports.

The consumption of edible oil (palm and soybean oil) increased by 12 per cent in eight years to reach 28.15 lakh tonnes in 2021 against 25.15 lakh tonnes in 2013, said the report.

AKM Fakhrul Alam, former regional manager (Bangladesh and Nepal) of Malaysian Palm Oil Council, said, "Rising palm oil prices over the past few years and rising demand for soybean oil have raised concerns about the future of the palm oil market."

"The exporting countries are already taking several initiatives to overcome this," he added.

Dr Sachnaz Desta Oktarina, researcher of Indonesian Oil Palm Research Institute, said "Palm oil exporting countries always keep an eye on Bangladesh and try to understand the country's demand…"

"…since most of its people use palm oil to meet their needs considering the price and quality," she said.

"Now around 80 per cent of the country's palm oil demand is met from Indonesia and the rest of the palm oil demand is met from Malaysia," she added.

"The rise or fall of palm oil prices does not depend on Indonesia. Apart from soybean oil prices, international demand, market system and production also play an important role here," she said. 

Tariq Ahmed, senior director of the TK Group of Industries said, "The purchasing power of the people is also increasing along with the growth of the country's GDP in the last one decade."

"As a result, demand for soybean oil is increasing compared to palm oil," he said.

"Palm oil used to control 71 per cent of the country's market in 2013 but now it has dropped to 52 per cent," he added.

The webinar was moderated by Yash Kanasal, deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide.