Happy 2018. Palm and Coconut round up at the start of the New Year.

Rather then making any sweeping predictions for 2018 think its more productive if we just look at the factors that are likely to be of interest in the coming months.

For Palm oil the question of sustainability continues to play heavily with consumers and government bodies. The possibility that all Palm oil will have to declare if its sustainable on food labels obviously could have a big impact. Will 2018 see a greater push from government agencies to see this happen? Weather hopefully will play a lesser role this year as crops recover from previous droughts. Will the weather stay stable throughout the year? America is likely to continue recent years desire for ever more soya crops as they look for self reliance and to move away from imported edible oils. Lastly crude oil continues to creep up slowly so will the issue of bio fuel again become important once more. Whilst the push with vehicle transport seems to have moved towards electric power for air travel again the possibility of bio aviation fuel has been mentioned.

Coconut oil demand continues to increase year on year as an alternative to other edible oils along with use for beauty products as well. Could the issue of sustainable palm oil push some more demand to coconut oil as buyers look for specific lauric oils. Will the issue though of adulteration of virgin oil with cheaper derivatives become a greater problem for the market?

Desiccated coconut demand like coconut oil remains very strong. Weather has hampered Sri Lanka crops but will this continue? Philippine shippers have all increased their capacity which is currently soaking up the lower crops from Sri Lanka but what effect would it have on the market is Sri Lanka crops recover? Indonesia has also been slow shipping in the later half of 2017 but these seems to be recovering now. Will this now lead to prices being pushed lower with better supply? Also high prices and high demand have been encouraging other origins to start to produce low quality desiccated coconut. Recently we have seen product appearing from India, Ghana and Papua New Guinea so what effect will this have. Lastly recent food scares in Europe related to chickens, milk and meat adulteration have made manufacturers ever more diligent on product identity. Will these issues lead to even more DNA style testing and even higher production costs.

For now though we wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2018.