Likewise, per capita human consumption of vegetable oils has increased more rapidly during the past 30 years than any other food.
Rising demand from growing economiesEconomic growth is certainly one reason that more consumers, particularly in China and India, can afford to purchase more vegetable oils. However, this trend also suggests that more people prefer to have a higher percentage of their food prepared with vegetable oils.
Most popular vegetable oil
While trailing soybeans, canola (rapeseed), and sunflower in area cultivated, by 2000 palm oil was the vegetable oil most produced and traded internationally by volume (FAO 2002). Palm oil (both crude palm oil and palm kernel oil) accounted for 40% of all vegetable oils traded, against 21% for soybean oil in 1999.
Multipurpose oil
Palm oil can be separated into a wide range of distinct oils with different properties that can be used in a variety of products which, in the past, contained animal or other vegetable oils.
Palm oil is used as a cooking oil; is the main ingredient for most margarine; is the base for most liquid detergents, soaps, and shampoos; and, in its most dense form, serves as the base for lipstick, waxes, and polishes. It is even used to reduce friction during the manufacture of steel.
Rapid expansion in cultivation & production
Oil palm cultivation is expanding more rapidly than almost any other agricultural commodity. Cultivation originated in West Africa, where oil palm trees were originally interplanted in traditional agricultural production systems along with other annual and perennial crops.
Production was for subsistence or trade within the region. By 1961 trade in palm oil had increased substantially, and Nigeria had 74% of the world's plantations (FAO 2002). By the early 1970s monocrop plantations of oil palm had increased dramatically in Malaysia and Indonesia.
By 2000, Malaysia and Indonesia accounted for just over half of the world's total plantation area, and Nigeria accounted for just over 30%. Production is expanding into Southeast Asia, Oceania, and South and Central America, with dramatic consequences for biodiversity.