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Founder of the platform, with more than 11 years of experience in marketing within the oils and fats industry.
Industry experts stress that the stability of the global food supply is at stake, calling for a more realistic approach to the vegetable oil market rather than searching for optimal solutions.
This proposal was made by Eric Meyard, head of the Oil Crops Working Group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), during the International Conference on Palm Oil and the Environment (ICOPE) 2025, based on the “Exploring the Future of Vegetable Oils” report issued by IUCN in 2024.
Mayard said: “The first thing to realize is that vegetable oils are not just optional additions to the human diet, but are an essential source of saturated and unsaturated fats that are part of a healthy diet.”
He added: “As the population increases, so does the demand for oils, and it is expected that between 2021 and 2030 we will need to increase vegetable oil production by about 33 million tons to meet dietary needs.”
The effect of vegetable oils on land use
He explained that vegetable oil production currently occupies about 543 million hectares of agricultural land globally, representing 37% of total agricultural land, noting that this percentage includes all oil crops such as palm oil, sunflower, kale, corn, etc., not only palm oil.
He noted that there is a paradox regarding palm oil, as some previous practices were not perfect due to lack of education and funding, but stressed that there is no more sustainable alternative currently.
He said: “Many Western markets look at palm oil in a definitive way and consider it absolutely harmful, but the reality is more complex.”
He explained that data indicates that replacing palm oil with other oils to meet the world's needs by 2050 will require allocating more than 200 million additional hectares of land to grow oil crops, which is a far from sustainable option.
He added that the report showed that palm oil is grown on 28.9 million hectares and is not the most land consuming oil crop, with corn occupying 205.9 million hectares, soybeans 129.5 million hectares, kale 36.7 million hectares, peanuts 32.7 million hectares, and sunflower seeds 29.5 million hectares.
He pointed out that there is a lack of research and discussion on Peanuts/Pistachios despite the large space they occupy, which indicates that this sector is less discussed compared to palm oil.
Mayard stressed that the solution is not to change crops, but to improve agricultural practices. He said: “There are no good or bad crops, but good and bad practices.”
He added: “It's not the crops that cause the problems, but the way they're managed. Any crop can be managed well or poorly, so we should focus on the concept of good management rather than considering eliminating any food source entirely.”
Mayard urged governments to make realistic decisions, noting that the report warned of the possible consequences of ignoring this approach.
He explained: “We studied different scenarios for the future of vegetable oils, and used extreme scenarios to derive possible consequences. For example, what would happen if all countries tried to achieve self-sufficiency through domestic production only?”
He added: “In this particular scenario, the decision would be bad, especially for non-producing markets such as Europe, where they are likely to face a severe fat shortage over the next 10 years.”
He concluded by saying: “We conclude from these scenarios that they are practically unrealistic, which is why we need practical and balanced solutions rather than looking for ideal solutions that are not applicable.”
Source: Food Navigator Asia
