Vegetable oil prices on the rise

In Germany, UFOP reports that the vegetable oil price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) rose to a seven-month high in September 2017. Above all, the firmer prices for palm and soybean oil contributed to the surge.

Asking prices for vegetable oils firmed significantly in the third quarter of 2017. After the FAO vegetable oil price index, which illustrates the changes in international prices of the ten most important vegetable oils in world trade, had fallen to an annual low in July 2017, prices recovered in the months that followed. The September 2017 vegetable oil price index showed a 4.5 per cent surge from the previous month, climbing to a seven-month high. Firmer asking prices for palm and soybean oil were the key factor providing a boost to the sector, Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI) reported.

The growth in output at Southeast Asian oil palm plantations fell short of expectations. This situation, along with brisk demand due to smaller stocks in the main importing countries, sent palm oil prices rising. Soybean oil benefited from the weather-related delay in soybean planting in South America, although the price surge was curbed by the higher than expected US soybean harvest in 2017. Slightly firmer asking prices for rapeseed and sunflower oil also contributed to the increase in the vegetable oil price index.