Palm oil: Sustainability practices draw ire of consumers

摘要

Palm oil is by far the largest volume vegetable oil produced in the world, and has been that way for several years. Though very little is produced in India, it is important here too: India is the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils (in all forms), and palm has the largest share of the country's import basket. Efforts to raise the crop here have met with very limited success, and it looks unlikely that this will change. South East Asia, and in particular Indonesia, Malaysia and (to a much smaller extent) Thailand are the world's largest producers of palm oil, and producers there look to its consumption in food, fuel and industrial applications to continue to drive demand. But there are challenges emerging, chiefly related to environmental and sustainability issues that will need to be tackled if the crop is to have a lasting future.