Vegetable oil production in 2023/24 expected to be up on previous year

Production of rapeseed, soyabean and palm oil would increase, while sunflower oil production was expected to decline, the 22 June report said.

According to the latest outlook published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), 2023/24 global production of vegetable oils would total 222.8M tonnes, an increase of 6.1M tonnes compared to the previous year.

This would mean production would be able to meet demand of around 217.9M tonnes with a marginal increase in ending stocks, the association said.

In terms of manufacture and consumption, palm oil was set to remain the world’s most important vegetable oil – with global output estimated at 79.3M tonnes, according to research by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft. This would be a 1.6M tonne increase compared to the previous year and would mean palm oil accounted for just over 36% of global vegetable oil production.

Indonesia remained the largest producer with an output of 47M tonnes, followed by Malaysia with 19M tonnes and Thailand with just less than 3.5M tonnes, the report said.

Soyabean oil production was expected to increase by 3.7% to 62.4M tonnes in the coming crop year and could reach a new record.

Although China remained the leading soyabean oil producer with production totalling 17M tonnes, this was based on large volumes of seed imports. With a total of 12.3M tonnes, the USA was the second largest producer.

Rapeseed oil production was also expected to increase – by 200,000 tonnes to 32.9M tonnes – compared to the previous year.

Sunflower oil production would probably decline by around 10,000 tonnes to 20.8M tonnes in 2023/24, although global sunflowerseed supply was expected to exceed the previous year’s volume due to an increase in planted areas, the report said.

The forecast reduction in sunflower oil production was due to reduced volumes in Argentina and Ukraine, although this was expected to be offset by increased sunflower oil production in the EU-27.

Tags: demand, Indonesia, ending stocks, Production, Thailand, Malaysia, rapeseed, palm oil, forecast, output, sunflower oil, soyabean oil, vegetable oils