Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Markets

We Each Consume 17 Pounds of Palm Oil a Year

  • Demand for most-consumed vegetable oil is spurring production
  • Malaysia celebrates 100 years of commercial palm oil this week
A worker sweeps the floor near a pile of oil palm fruit at a collection facility in Tanjong Karang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Photographer: Charles Pertwee/Bloomberg

Pick up any package in a supermarket and there’s about a 50 percent chance it’s got palm oil in it.

The world’s most-used cooking oil is in everything from pizza dough to ice cream and shampoo. Global per capita consumption has more than doubled since 2000 to 7.7 kilograms (17 pounds) in 2015, according to data from Gro Intelligence. Malaysia and Indonesia grow about 85 percent of the world’s supply.