Palm oil prices hit record premium

Palm oil is no longer the cheapest vegetable oil in the world, as strong demand has pushed prices up by almost 30%. Meanwhile, prices for competing soybean oil have fallen by more than 11% this year due to record global soybean production.

This was written by Reuters market analyst Karen Brown.

Palm oil accounts for about 40% of the world’s production of major vegetable oils, while soybean oil accounts for one third. Therefore, palm oil has always been cheaper than soybean oil by an average of 170 USD/t.

“But at the end of November this year, the basic futures for Malaysian palm oil were about 145 USD/t more expensive than the most active soybean oil futures in Chicago, which indicates the highest premium of palm oil compared to soybean oil in recent decades,” Karen Brown said.

Tags: prices, palm oil