The palm oil in the world market: production and trade

World palm oil market had a huge development during the last 30 years. The most spectacular phenomenon is the very quick growth of areas, productions and exports of Malaysia and Indonesia. At the world level, this oil has supplanted soybean oil in the supply of many developed and developing countries to satisfy their needs of fats and oils for food and industrial uses. In many countries, specifically in Africa, this crop showed an important progression with the aim of supplying local needs. Being the crop that provides more oil by hectare that any other seed, in spite of remaining low yields, this production is in the logic of sustainable development, contributing to economic development of rural areas and limiting dependence on imports and price fluctuations of fats and oils world markets.