Palm Oil Market Outlook to 2020

Crude palm oil (CPO) has grown from strength-to-strength in the last two decades, now representing one-third of the vegetable oil market. Growth has largely been driven by consumption in the emerging markets such as China and India. New demand markets in the last decade, such as biodiesel, have also played a major role regarding consumption trends. Consequently, CPO has become more closely correlated to energy prices, which has thus has the effect of propelling CPO prices into a new trading range. Frost & Sullivan predicts that the market will be short term bearish due to global economic instability but mid- to long-term bullish due to the continued demand for palm and land scarcity.