A negative side-effect of palm oil production

A negative side-effect of palm oil production – apart from its impact on people’s health due to the high level of saturated fat – is that the palm oil business is a key driver of deforestation in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil but it is also the largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States.

Global palm oil production is dominated by Indonesia and Malaysia. These two countries, together, account for around 85 to 90 percent of total global palm oil production. Indonesia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil worldwide.

Over the long term, global palm oil demand shows an increasing trend as an expanding global population gives rise to rising consumption of food and cosmetic products that contain some sort of material that is derived from palm oil. Meanwhile, governments around the world are encouraging the use of biofuels that could drive the export of palm-oil crushing equipment.