OILS AND FATS IN THE MARKET PLACE
Oilseeds, Oils and Fats, and Seed Meals in 2007/08
Individual products are detailed in other sections, but it is useful to have an overall view of the size of these commodities (see Table 1). The astute reader will be able to draw many conclusions from these data. Some points that interest me are discussed here. Figures are generally given for harvest years such as 2007/08. This relates to harvests in the Northern Hemisphere in 2007 and in the Southern Hemisphere in 2008. We are now in the incomplete 2008/09 harvest year for which forecasts are available. Figures for the recent past may be changed slightly as more reliable data become available. It must be a considerable task to obtain the required data, especially from less developed countries.
Table 1. Production of oilseeds, oils and fats, and oilmeals in 2007/08 using figures from Oil World and from USDA. Data are expressed in million tonnes (mt). |
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| Oil World Annual for 2008 | USDA-FAS August 2008 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seeds | Oil | Meal | Seeds | Oil | Meal | |
| Soya | 222.3 | 38.6 | 163.0 | 218.2 | 38.0 | 160.2 |
| Cotton | 44.0 | 5.1 | 20.8 | 45.5 | 4.9 | 15.6 |
| Groundnut (a) | 24.2 | 4.5 | 6.3 | 32.3 | 4.8 | 5.8 |
| Sunflower | 28.1 | 9.9 | 11.2 | 27.2 | 9.9 | 10.6 |
| Rape | 48.1 | 19.1 | 28.3 | 47.3 | 18.2 | 27.4 |
| Sesame | 3.4 | 0.9 | 1.1 | |||
| Palmkernel | 11.0 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 11.1 | 4.8 | 5.7 |
| Copra/coconut | 5.3 | 3.3 | 1.9 | 5.7 | 3.5 | 1.8 |
| Linseed | 2.0 | 0.7 | 1.3 | |||
| Castor | 1.3 | 0.5 | ||||
| Corn | 2.4 | |||||
| Olive | 3.1 | 2.8 | ||||
| Palm | 41.7 | 41.1 | ||||
| Butter | 7.1 | |||||
| Lard | 7.8 | |||||
| Tallow | 8.7 | |||||
| Fish | 1.0 | 5.5 | 5.1 | |||
| Corn germ | 4.0 | |||||
| Corn gluten feed | 16.3 | |||||
| Total production | 389.7 | 159.4 | 265.3 | 387.2 | 128.1 | 232.2 |
| Total exports | 91.1 | 61.3 | 78.3 | 89.8 | 51.9 | 72.1 |
| Production 01/02 | 326.9 | 123.2 | 213.6 | |||
Totals may not add up due to rounding |
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Individual figures taken from the two sources do not agree perfectly. The totals cannot be expected to agree because of the different numbers of entries in corresponding columns.
Figures for seeds and meals are dominated by soybeans. Soya beans, grown mainly in North and South America, are the most important source of protein meal used mainly for animal feed and the second largest source of oil after palm oil. In 2007/08, these two oils represented almost 50% of the 17 commodity oils listed by Oil World and almost 60% of the nine major vegetable oils detailed by USDA.
The 17 commodity oils can be categorised as listed below with the figures being total production (mt, million tonnes) in 2007/08 and % of total oil and fat production (159.4 mt).
- Four major vegetable oils (palm, soybean, rape, and sunflower) 109.3 mt, 69%.
- Six minor oils (cotton, groundnut, olive, sesame, linseed, castor) 17.2 mt, 11%.
- Two lauric oils (palmkernel and coconut) distinguished from other oils by their characteristic fatty acid composition 8.1 mt, 5%.
- Four animal fats (butter, lard, tallow, fish oil) 24.7 mt 15%.
In round figures exports represent about 20% of seeds, 40% of oils, and 30% of oil meals.
· The final line in the Table provides data for five years earlier and indicates that production of seeds, oil, and meals have increased by 19.2, 29.4, and 24.2%, respectively, in that time period.
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Updated: 25/9/2008 |
Scottish Crop Research Institute (and MRS Lipid Analysis Unit), Invergowrie, Dundee (DD2 5DA), Scotland
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