Weaker Palm oil on India increase of duty

This week India increased their import duty on Palm oil to protect the home grown market. The increase was only 45% to 50% but its been enough to push the market lower. This after several weeks of slowly rising prices due to extra demand in Palm oil caused by the US-China trade war. What we are seeing is outside forces manipulating either by deliberate action or by accident the price of edible oils. The problem is that then becomes impossible to predict where the market will move. At this time of year we would normally see a small surge in Palm oil crops leading to weaker prices. But US Hurricane Dorian has got people thinking about this years typhoon season in Asia. We have already seen super typhoon this year quite early on. Coconut oil prices are slightly firmer recently tracking Palm oil but this weeks drop in Palm oil has halted any strength for now. The market for all edible oils is likely to remain very hard to predict for some time to come.

Desiccated coconut prices had started to firm up slightly as they tracked edible oils. Also with August on wards being peak season in Europe there is always far more buying. Lower production from both Indonesia and Philippines has kept prices supported as well. But still with plentiful supply prices are not likely to firm up any more at the moment. A Salmonella case in coconut in Australia is likely though to make users look again at the quality of their suppliers.