The palm oil sector in the European Union urges markets to put bias aside in light of the global vegetable oil shortages

With markets such as the European Union ramping up the pressure on palm oil by pushing forth with sustainability regulatory frameworks that seemingly target the commodity, the impacts of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war have raised questions over the feasibility of boycotting an entire commodity at a time when vegetable oil supply is at risk of falling short of global requirements. As it is, industry experts expect the crisis in Ukraine to have a significant impact on APAC countries in terms of a severe drop in vegetable oil supply​, with millions of tonnes of oil production expected to be disrupted. Sunflower oil is likely to be the biggest casualty, as Ukraine produces some 19 million tonnes of this annually, with Ukraine and Russia together making up about 70% of global crude sunflower oil exports (Ukraine usually makes up about half of the export market). Furthermore, sunflower seeds are generally sown in April and May, and harvested in September – none of which looks likely to ...