Vegetable oil prices hit a record: A new food shock called cooking oil

A shortage of sunflower oil has caused a domino effect, causing the price of canola oil, palm oil and olive oil in the world reached a record high.

On April 27, the Ministry of Agriculture of Indonesia said that the country will allow the export of crude palm oil again, but processed oil is still on the banned list. The above decision of Indonesia, which accounts for one-third of exports cooking oil globally, is expected to cause a sharp increase in oil prices in the market.

India, the world’s largest importer of palm, soybean and sunflower oils, is facing rising commodity prices. The price of cooking oil sold at shops in the capital New Delhi has increased by 12% to 17% since the conflict in Ukraine broke out. The government of this country has abolished import tax and is trying to limit the storage of cooking oil, but the price of this item has not shown any signs of cooling down.

In Europe, cooking oil is on the scarce list. The fact that Spaniards rushed to buy and hoard cooking oil easily reminds us of the image of supermarkets being wiped out of toilet paper during the new outbreak of COVID-19. Also in this country, in 2021, the price of cooking oil was 0.8 Euro / liter, now it is 2.6 Euro / liter, an increase of 300%. Many retailers are forced to stipulate that each customer can only buy from 2 to 5 liters of oil.

Using cooking oil to fry Mandazi cakes in Nairobi, Kenya, April 20, 2022. (Photo: AP)

According to data from research firm Mintec, Ukraine exported 5.27 million tons of sunflower oil between 2020 and 2021, accounting for about 47 percent of the world’s total exports. However, the country’s exports have been halted since the conflict broke out.

The lack of supply from Russia and Ukraine, which export cooking oil has led to a 44% increase in world sunflower oil prices at the end of March compared with the same period in 2021, while rapeseed oil has increased by 72%. The shortage of cooking oil is spreading to Africa and causing the price of palm oil, which is widely used in meals, to start to increase in price.

The world is in danger of running out of cooking oil

VTV.vn – The shortage of goods is raising concerns about the risk of a global cooking oil supply crisis.

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