There is no peace, for the confectionery industry and for the processing industry. After the sunflower oil exports from Ukraine were blocked, and after a 20% tax was decided on the Russian ones, it is now the turn of Indonesia, which starting from April 28 has decided to block the palm oil exports. The stop was decided to counter the increase in prices on the domestic market, which has exceeded 40% since the beginning of the year. The first result of this blockade, Confagricoltura recalls, was the increase in the prices of soybean oil, an alternative to both sunflower and palm oil, of which Indonesia is the leading exporter in the world: Chicago soybean prices have reached an all-time high.
In Italy, according to ISMEA data, the price of refined sunflower oil in the last twelve months has gone from 1.46 to 2.87 euros per kilogram. As for palm oil, our country imports from Indonesia for a value of approximately 590 million euros, which represents almost half of the total imports from abroad. The Italian food industry, especially that of baked goods and canned goods, is looking for alternatives: “The European Union must do its part – says the president of Confagricoltura, Massimiliano Giansanti – it is essential to increase European grain crops and oilseeds and a national olive oil plan must also be defined as soon as possible: Italy can and must regain a leading position for the production of olive oil ».
According to the forecasts of the Italian Union for Sustainable Palm Oil, the war in Ukraine and the shortage of raw materials were reviving palm oil among companies in the Italian food industry, so much so that its use was expected to increase by 20%. Now, however, to hinder the return to the use of this oil, after years of campaigns against it, the Indonesian ban has been placed. And not only that: Coldiretti also points the finger at the latest circular that the Ministry of Economic Development issued at the beginning of April on the wave of the emergency stop for arrivals from Ukraine, and which allows the food industry to use palm oil instead of sunflower oil without explicitly indicating it on the label. “Palm oil – writes Coldiretti – is a product that many companies in Italy have already decided to replace because the concerns about the impact on health, due to the high content of saturated fatty acids, are joined by those from the point of environmental view, because the enormous development of the palm oil market is leading globally to the wild deforestation of vast forests ». According to Coldiretti, Italy should rather focus on olive oil, of which our country is the second largest producer in the world and which has had moderate price increases of 5.3% compared to + 25.9% of other vegetable oils .