Increasing vegetable oils application in fuel production, culinary, soaps and perfume formulations is expected to drive the global market over the forecast period. Growing processed foods industry, particularly in emerging markets, is expected to drive vegetable oils consumption in the long run.
Vegetable oils are major feedstock in bio lubricants production. Tightening regulatory framework regarding disposability and recyclability of petrochemical derived lubricants has been driving bio lubricants demand, thus providing growth opportunities for global vegetable oil market. As a result of their recyclable property, vegetable oils have diverse applications as automotive oil, demolding oil, hydraulic oil, chainsaw oils and industrial oils. On basis of the above applications, several vegetable oil manufacturing companies are converging on producing modified renewable oil and mineral oil based products. This initiative by major companies will help in escalating vegetable oil market additionally favoring its consumption in mature markets that are governed by regulatory policies favoring eco-friendly products. Vegetable oils are used as source to produce bio ethanol which is further used for biofuels production. Growing demand for biodiesel in automotive, aerospace and aviation industries is expected to have a positive impact on the global market. in line with aforementioned, use of vegetable oils as an alternative energy source is projected to witness a rapid growth in the long run.
Major vegetable oils that find commercial applications include palm oil, castor oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil. Sunflower oil emerged as a major product segment in the vegetable oil market on account of its health benefits such cardiovascular benefits, helps in preventing arthritis, asthma and colon cancer. Vegetable oil market has thus been gaining importance as a major health care product as it helps in cell structure repair apart from aforementioned benefits. Stringent biofuel policies in Europe and U.S. over accessibility of soybean oil have diverted the vegetable oil market towards other vegetable oils such as palm, palm kernel and sunflower oils.
On the basis of applications the vegetable oil market has been segmented into industrial, biofuel or biodiesel and the food segment. Currently, the use of vegetable oil in food segment occupies a major share in FMCG market globally. Biofuels is expected to generate maximum vegetable oil demand over the forecast period owing to increasing regulatory favorability towards unconventional fuel sources and subsequent vegetable oil sourcing as feedstock. Vegetable oils extracted from seeds and fruits are used for edible purposes. This significant characteristic of processed vegetable oil has increased its demand in animal feed additive industry, thus providing growth opportunities in terms of expanding application scope. In comparison to mineral oils, vegetable oils produce bio based lubricants of a high viscosity index, vegetable oils have also been found out to have better lubricity than mineral oils, hence many companies are focusing on replacing mineral oils with vegetable oils in order to provide oils with lower volatility, less smoke, better pressure performance and high viscosity. Vegetable oils as mineral oil substitutes are anticipated to foster global vegetable oil market growth over the next seven years.
Very high consumption of oxidized polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS), found in majority of vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower and corn oil has increased the outcome of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Furthermore corn oil possesses high polyunsaturated fatty acids that causes inflammation of the cells leading to many digestive diseases. Such health issues associated with vegetable oils might impede their consumption in edible applications such as food processing.
North America is a major regional market and is characterized by high vegetable oils consumption in biofuels production and bio-based products manufacturing. High consumer awareness regarding environmental effects of petrochemical derived products has led to high demand for bio-based products. This trend is expected to strengthen North America vegetable oils market. Europe is expected to register moderate to high demand over the forecast period owing to increasing EU initiatives promoting bio-based products production and consequent ECHA regulations towards petrochemical products. Asia Pacific is projected to witness immense growth on account of growing end-use markets such as biofuels, food processing and bioplastics. Abundant raw material availability in Southeast Asian markets is anticipated to have a positive impact on Asia Pacific vegetable oils production landscape.
Major companies operating in the global vegetable oils market include Total S.A., BP, Shell, Archer Daniels Midland Co., Bunge North America Inc., Cargill Agricola S.A., Fuji Oil, Dow Agrosciences LLC, United Plantations Berhad, and Savola Group.
