The palm oil market - Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

Palm oil is a vegetable origin fat that is extracted from African oil palms, South American oil palms and maripa palms. It is mainly used in the confectionery industry for the production of margarine for cocoa spreads. Palm oil has the characteristic of having a high sapidity, a good resistance to oxidation and finally has very low production costs. Palm oil, especially in the last years, has been considered a very polluting food because of the increasing cultivation of palm trees which destroys flora and fauna. Palm oil is not only used as a food but also to produce energy or as a raw material in cosmetics.

As for the global palm oil market, it was worth 42.8 billion dollars in 2020 and is expected to be worth 57.2 billion dollars by 2026 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5%. 86% of the world's palm oil production comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, followed by countries in South Africa and South America. Sixty percent of the palm oil imported into Europe is used not as food but to produce energy.

Regarding the Italian market, as reported by the 2019 Report of the Italian Union for Sustainable Palm Oil, the consumption of sustainable palm oil has increased. In 2019, a total of 253 thousand tons of palm oil were consumed by Italians, divided into 78% for industrial uses, 14% in the food sector and 8% for the cosmetics and household sector. Italy is also the fifth country in the world for the number of companies that are part of the "Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)", an agricultural organization that aims to promote the sustainable cultivation of palm oil.