T&D says EU 2019 palm oil imports rose 7% on year

In Belgium, European drivers burn 100 times more palm oil in their tanks than is in the 40 billion Oreo cookies consumed worldwide every year. That’s according to new data that shows the amount of forest-ravaging palm oil used to make EU ‘bio’-diesel increased 7% last year, reaching an all-time high of 4.5 million metric tons.

In contrast, the use of palm oil to make everyday products such as bread, ice cream, hazelnut spread, chocolate, margarine, shampoo and detergent dropped to an all-time low of 2.8 million tons. The new research released today by NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) uses data from OILWORLD, the industry’s reference for vegetable oils markets.