Indonesia the world’s biggest palm oil exporter imposed a ban on palm oil exports to avert potential domestic shortages due to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.
Indonesia which exports about a third of the world’s edible oil imposed a ban on palm oil exports in order to protect its domestic market at a time of rampant global inflation.
There have been shortages of edible oil due to the war in Ukraine which affected the shipping of sunflowers.
There are growing fears that the ban on palm oil exports will result in more global oil pressors turning to soya bean oil as a substitute and this will exert more pressure on demand.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean cooking oil producers have warned of potential shortages.
“We are going to see huge demand for soya bean oil which local producers dominantly use with a potential of shortages” Sylvester Mangani, the chief executive of Surface Wilmar, the producer of pure dropped cooking oil said.
The Russia-Ukraine war has caused a new wave of protectionism as governments seek to secure food and other commodities for their citizens.
Countries have imposed a total of 47 export curbs on food and fertilizers with 43 of those put in a place war broke out in Ukraine in February, New York Times reported citing Simon Evennet a professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St.Fallen.
