OILS AND FATS IN THE MARKET PLACE
NON-FOOD USES
Most of the oils and fats produced each year are used as human food with the remainder being used as the basis of the oleochemical industry and some for animal feed. In the 1980s based on 17 commodity oils, the ratio of these three uses was considered to be 80:14:6. This ratio applies to all 17 oils and fats collectively. It cannot be applied to USDA data on the nine vegetable oils, to individual commodity oils, nor to individual countries. For example the usage pattern of olive oil is clearly different from that of linseed oil and countries with a substantial oleochemical industry will differ from those with little or no activity in this area. In any case this ratio is no longer valid because of the rapid growth in the use of oils and fats for biodiesel. I have suggested elsewhere that this ratio is now closer to 75:20:5.
Information provided by the USDA allows us to study more closely the figures for nine major vegetable oils (Tables 1-4). There are gaps in the Tables because the information provided is not complete. Surprisingly, for example, in Table 3 while there are useful figures for the major consuming countries in respect of the consumption for food and non-food uses, there are no corresponding figures for the USA. Some animal fats are used extensively for non-food purposes but figures are not provided and this discussion is confined to nine vegetable oils. We will address the questions: which oils have greatest non-food use, in which parts of the world are non-food use more important, and what changes have occurred in the 14-year period 1994/95 to 2007/08?
The oleochemical industry uses oils and fats as essential feedstock. These are converted to basic oleochemicals such as acids, esters, alcohols, and nitrogen-containing compounds, which are then used mainly to produce surface-active compounds for personal care and for cleaning processes. The new feature here is the use of esters as biodiesel. Other industrial uses include paints and inks, lubricants, and production of polyols to make polyurethanes.
Current production of the nine major vegetable oils in 2007/08 is detailed in Tables 1 and 3. Of these oils 23 million tonnes (18%) are now used for non-food purposes (i.e. for animal feed and for the oleochemical industry including biodiesel). This will include the two lauric oils at about 50% of total (4.0 million tonnes), palm oil (9.5 million tonnes), rapeseed oil (4.9 million tonnes) and other (~5 million tonnes). This last is likely to be mainly soybean oil with only small contributions from cottonseed, olive, peanut, and sunflower.
The highest ratio of non-food to food use is apparent in SE Asia (with its large oleochemical industry, particularly in Malaysia) and in EU-27 (oleochemical industry and biodiesel production, mainly from rapeseed oil). There will also be significant non-food use in USA and Japan, both with mature oleochemical industries and in countries such as the USA and Argentina producing biodiesel from soybean oil for export.
The figures in Table 2 covering the last 13 years show that there has been an increase in non-food use of oils and fats in the second half of this period. To make this point it is better to discuss % than million tonnes. Thus, for the nine seed oils the % used for non-food purposes was 10, 11, and 18% of total production at the beginning, middle, and end of the 13-year period, respectively. These figures were 10, 8, and 27% for rapeseed oil and 18, 15, and 24 for palm oil. The change for rapeseed oil, mainly in Europe, is linked to biodiesel production. The rising use of palm oil for non-food purposes is not (yet) an indicator of biodiesel production, but reflects the increasing use of this oil in the conventional oleochemical industry, particularly in SE Asia.
Table 4 shows the distribution of the nine vegetable oils between non-food and food use over the last 14 years during which time the non-food share has risen from 7 to 23 million tonnes (from 10.2 to 18.5%). Further, this change is confined to the second half of the period – from 2001/02 onwards. This reflects particularly the growth of the oleochemical industry in Malaysia based on palm and palm kernel oils and increasing production of biodiesel in Europe mainly from rapeseed oil. Production of biodiesel from soybean oil is beginning in the USA and in Argentina.
Table 1. Production (million tonnes and %) of nine major vegetable oils in 2007/08. |
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| Production | % | |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut | 3.3 | 2.6 |
| Cottonseed | 4.9 | 3.8 |
| Olive | 2.8 | 2.2 |
| Palm | 41.1 | 32.0 |
| Palmkernel | 4.8 | 3.7 |
| Peanut | 4.9 | 3.8 |
| Rapeseed | 18.1 | 14.1 |
| Soybean | 38.4 | 29.9 |
| Sunflower | 10.1 | 7.9 |
| Total | 128.5 | 100.0 |
Table 2. Consumption for food and non-food (n-f) purposes (million tonnes) in 1994/95, 2000/01 and 2007/08. |
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| 9 Seed oils | Rapeseed | Palm | Other | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| total | food | n-f | total | food | n-f | total | food | n-f | total | food | n-f | |
| 94/95 | 66.5 | 59.7 | 6.8 | 10.3 | 9.3 | 1.0 | 14.4 | 11.8 | 2.6 | 41.8 | 38.6 | 3.2 |
| 00/01 | 88.6 | 79.0 | 9.6 | 13.3 | 12.2 | 1.1 | 24.1 | 20.4 | 3.7 | 51.2 | 46.4 | 4.8 |
| 07/08 | 126.7 | 103.3 | 23.4 | 18.4 | 13.5 | 4.9 | 40.2 | 30.7 | 9.5 | 68.1 | 59.1 | 9.0 |
Table 3. Food and non-food consumption (million tonnes) of the major vegetable oils in 2006/07 by country/region. |
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| Total | Food | Non-food | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Palm | Rape | Soya | Other | |||
| SE Asia | 14.5 | 8.0 | 6.5 | 4.1 | 0.1 | 2.3 | |
| Middle East | 5.0 | 4.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| EU-27 | 21.3 | 13.1 | 8.2 | 1.2 | 4.7 | 1.7 | 0.6 |
| China | 24.5 | 22.0 | 2.5 | 2.0 | 0.5 | ||
| India | 12.6 | 12.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.4 | ||
| USA | 12.0 | ||||||
| Other | 36.8 | ||||||
| Total | 126.7 | 103.3 | 23.4 | 9.5 | 4.9 | ||
| The USDA figures do not provide information to complete this Table (see text). “Other” will be mainly the two lauric oils. SE Asia includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Middle East includes Bahrain, Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, West Banks, and Yemen. |
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Table 4. Food and non-food consumption (million tonnes and %) of nine major vegetable oils between 1994/95 and 2007/08. |
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| Total | Food | Non-food | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994/95 | 66.5 | 59.7 | 6.8 | 10.2 |
| 1995/96 | 69.3 | 62.1 | 7.2 | 10.4 |
| 1996/97 | 72.8 | 65.2 | 7.6 | 10.4 |
| 1997/98 | 73.8 | 66.4 | 7.4 | 10.0 |
| 1998/99 | 78.6 | 70.8 | 7.8 | 9.9 |
| 1999/00 | 82.7 | 74.6 | 8.1 | 9.8 |
| 2000/01 | 88.6 | 79.0 | 9.6 | 10.8 |
| 2001/02 | 91.6 | 81.1 | 10.5 | 11.5 |
| 2002/03 | 95.6 | 83.6 | 12.0 | 12.6 |
| 2003/04 | 100.4 | 86.7 | 13.7 | 13.6 |
| 2004/05 | 107.9 | 91.4 | 16.5 | 15.3 |
| 2005/06 | 115.3 | 95.5 | 19.8 | 17.2 |
| 2006/07 | 121.5 | 99.3 | 22.2 | 18.3 |
| 2007/08 | 126.7 | 103.3 | 23.4 | 18.5 |
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Updated: 27/6/2008 |
Scottish Crop Research Institute (and MRS Lipid Analysis Unit), Invergowrie, Dundee (DD2 5DA), Scotland
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