Facing the threat of food crisis caused by climate change, geopolitical conflict, and fast growth of population, the global communities are required to find a solution of efficient, sustainable, and highly nutritious food sources. Considering its productivity, efficiency, and versatility, the palm oil can become the right solution.

But as of now, the palm oil is only known as the raw material to produce cooking oil and biodiesel. Apparently, not many people realize that the palm oil has a big potential as the right solution for the global problem of food crisis.

Less Land, much higher productivity

Oil palm trees have the highest productivity of oil if compared to other  vegetable oils in the world. Following is a comparison with other oil crops:

• One hectare of oil palm plantation can produce 3.5–4 tons of oil per year.
• With the same land size, soybeans only produce around 0.4 ton per hectare per year.
• Sunflowers and rapeseed are also far behind.

It shows that oil palm requires much less land areas to produce the same amount of oil. So, it means that it can be the right solution to fulfill the rising global needs for foods without opening up forest areas.

“The global oil palm plantations only account for 6% of the global total areas of all plantations of oil crops. But the global oil palm plantations can produce more than 35% of the world’s total production of vegetable oils.”

Nutritious and rich in vitamin A, E

Palm oil, especially red palm oil, is nutritious and rich in vitamin A and E. The red palm oil has the following contents:

• Very high content of pro-vitamin A (beta carotene),
• Vitamin E in the forms of tocotrienols and tocopherols

In Africa and many other developing countries, the red palm oil has been used as a fortified food ingredient to overcome the problem of vitamin A deficiency, especially for children and pregnant women. Even the WHO and UNICEF have recommended the use of red palm oil for programs of public nutrition intervention.

Can be processed into functional food products

The palm oil is not only used to produce cooking oil. As a raw material, it can also be processed into various forms of functional foods, such as the following:

• Palm milk (palm-based milk) as an alternative to cow’s milk
• High-nutrition biscuits, healthy margarine, and fortified instant noodles
• Nutritional supplements for areas prone to food shortage

Currently, the processing technology has allowed the fractionation of palm oil into a variety of safe and high-quality components of nutritious foods.

Big opportunity for Indonesia

As the world’s largest palm oil producer, Indonesia is strategically positioned to:

• Pioneer palm oil development for food solutions
• Provide healthy and affordable vegetable oil for countries experiencing hunger
• Encourage research and innovation in palm oil biofortification

With the support of research and a strong commitment to sustainability, palm oil can become an inclusive and comprehensive solution to meet the rising global needs for food products.

So far, public discourse around palm oil has only revolved around environmental, energy, and export issues.

In fact, the humanitarian and food security aspects of palm oil have almost escaped attention. With the support of policies and collaboration between countries, palm oil can be the key to solving the global challenge in providing sufficient, nutritious, and sustainable food sources. (*)

Oil World. (2022). Oil World Annual Statistics. Hamburg, Germany. FAO. (2021). Role of Red Palm Oil in Combating Vitamin A Deficiency. Retrieved from: www.fao.org