How palm oil became ubiquitous

There is good reason to believe that the numbers given in the CES do not capture the real edible oil economy in India. To be sure, this is not to say that the CES numbers are incorrect. However, what gets captured under the edible oil head in the CES numbers is direct consumption of edible oil. Edible oil also enters household baskets in indirect form when they consume food items and even non-food items which use oil in their manufacturing process. It is through this route that palm oil has become the most important player in India’s edible oil economy.

Numbers given on the website of the Oil Division of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution give an idea about this. “The share of raw oil, refined oil and vanaspati in the total edible oil market is estimated roughly at 35%, 60% and 5% respectively. About 56% of domestic demand of edible oils is met through imports out of which palm oil/palmolein constitutes about 54%. The consumption of refined palmolein (RBD palmolein) as well as its blending with other oils has increased substantially over the years and is used extensively in hotels, restaurants and in preparation of wide varieties of food products”, the website says. This also means that India will continue to remain vulnerable to disruptions to the global palm oil economy, unless it increases domestic production of palm oil or moves away from its use in meeting direct and in direct edible oil requirements. The government policy seems to have chosen the former route. However, many believe that this could have a significant environmental cost.