168

July 2008, Vol. 20, No. 7

Lipid Technology

DOI 10.1002/lite.200800042

Market Report
Frank D. Gunstone

The lauric oils

The two important lauric oils are coconut oil and palmkernel oil. They differ from other commodity oils in their high
content of medium chain acids, especially lauric (12:0), and
in the corresponding low levels of unsaturated C18 acids.
They differ from one another in that compared with palmkernel oil, coconut oil has more caprylic (8:0) and capric
(10:0) acids and less oleic acids (Table 1). Both oils have
important food and non-food uses at. Palmkernel oil is also
used after hydrogenation and/or fractionation thereby
extending its range of uses.
Table 1. Typical fatty acid composition (wt%) of the two major lauric
oils.

Coconut
Palmkernel

8:0

10:0

12:0

14:0

16:0

18:0

18:1

18:2

8
3

7
4

48
45

16
18

9
9

2
3

7
15

2
2

Table 2 shows production and trade levels of these two

oils since 2001/02. Production of coconut oil varies from
year to but there is no evidence of general increase. In contrast, production of palmkernel oil has risen steadily
through this period and accounts for all the upward movement in the availability of the lauric oils. In 2006/07 the
major producers of coconut oil were Philippines (1.11 million tonnes), Indonesia (0.79), and India (0.39) and of palmkernel oil were Malaysia (1.94) and Indonesia (1.77). Table 3
provides details of the major users of lauric oils for 2006/07.
EU-27, USA, and China are importers of these oils while the
remaining five countries are producers of one or both of
these oils. With the exception of Malaysia with its large and
growing oleochemical industry (and to some extent India)
local consumption will be almost entirely dietary consumption of cheap indigenous oil. India has long had an oleochemical industry based, in part, on locally produced coconut oil. Malaysia has exploited its supply of tropical oils and
developed a successful oleochemical industry, first in the
production of basic oleochemicals (acids, esters, alcohols,
nitrogen-containing derivatives, and glycerol) and later in
downstream consumer products. Apart from these producer
countries the major users are EU-27, USA, and China, all of
which make use of both oils. Overall the lauric oils divide
almost evenly between food and non-food purposes.

2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Table 2. Production and exports (million tonnes) of coconut and

palmkernel oils in the period 2000/01 to 2006/07 with forecasts for
2007/08. World import levels are virtually the same as exports and
total consumption is very close to production.
01/02 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08f
Coconut
Production
Exports

3.18
1.85

3.18
1.95

3.11
1.86

3.15
2.10

3.22
2.17

2.90
1.75

3.02
1.87

Palmkernel
Production
Exports

2.99
1.55

3.30
1.69

3.47
1.81

3.95
2.08

4.21
2.22

4.44
2.60

4.79
2.86

Lauric oils
Production
Exports

6.17
3.40

6.48
3.64

6.58
3.67

7.10
4.18

7.43
4.39

7.34
4.35

7.81
4.73

Table 3. Consumption (million tonnes) for food and non-food purposes by major consuming countries in 2006/07.

World
EU-27
Malaysia
USA
Indonesia
India
China
Philippines
Nigeria

Coconut

Palmkernel

Laurics

2.95
0.68
0.06
0.39
0.19
0.40
0.09
0.32

4.46
0.71
1.09
0.29
0.46
0.15
0.38
0.01
0.22

7.41
1.39
1.15
0.68
0.65
0.55
0.47
0.33
0.22

Table 4. Prices for coconut and palmkernel oils (US%/tonne) in Rotterdam. The prices for 2006/07 are only for the eight months October-May. See text for 2007/08 figures.

Coconut
Palmkernel

1996/06

2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

561
554

636
638

583
583

717
683

Prices for the two lauric oils up to 2006/07 are detailed in

Table 4. According to recent USDA figures prices for coconut
oil in year 2007/08 have risen from 1010 in October 2007 to
1471 US$/tonne in March 2008, The average for the first six
months of the 2007/08 harvest year is 1239 US$/tonne.
Though not detailed in the USDA report the monthly prices
of palmkernel oil are not likely to differ greatly from those
for coconut oil.