EDIBLE OIL PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY PLUS

Globally, the best production levels are achieved in high rainfall areas in equatorial regions between 7° N and 7° S. Cultivation of oil palm as a crop was originally an informal process mainly confined to the West/Central African coastal belt between Guinea/Liberia and Northern Angola (Corley and Tinker 2015). In its regions of origin the oil palm plant has great significance to local people and for wider biodiversity (Cosiaux et al. Oil palm fruits are available year-round and have served as semi-wild food resources in traditional societies for > 7000 years. The African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is native to West Africa and in terms of agriculture, it is perhaps the world’s most important palm species. The palms, or Arecaceae, are a family of stem-less, tree-like monocot plants that are highly significant to humans and wider biodiversity, especially in the tropics (Cosiaux et al. New breeding and management approaches are providing the promise of improvements, such as much higher yielding varieties, improved oil profiles, enhanced disease resistance, and greater climatic resilience. The inevitability of climate change requires more effective international collaboration for its reduction. Oil palm crop production faces many future challenges, including emerging threats from climate change and pests and diseases. This review surveys the oil palm sector in the 2020s and beyond, its major challenges and options for future progress.

EDIBLE OIL PRODUCTION BY COUNTRY PLUS

These include increasing incidence of new and existing pests/diseases and a general lack of climatic resilience, especially relating to elevated temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, plus downstream issues relating to supply chains and consumer sentiment. The oil palm crop system faces many challenges in the 2020s. In contrast, the second and third largest vegetable oil crops, soybean and rapeseed, yield a combined 84 Mt oil but occupy over 163 Mha of increasingly scarce arable land. Oil palm crops globally produce an annual 81 million tonnes (Mt) of oil from about 19 million hectares (Mha). Oil palm is a perennial crop with a > 25-year life cycle and an exceptionally low land footprint compared to annual oilseed crops. Palm oils are key dietary components consumed daily by over three billion people, mostly in Asia, and also have a wide range of important non-food uses including in cleansing and sanitizing products.

Oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is by far the most important global oil crop, supplying about 40% of all traded vegetable oil.

Edible oil production by country