(Dec 27): Palm oil posted its biggest advance since July as China's decision to end quarantine for inbound visitors buoyed expectations that demand in one of the world's top consumers of edible oils will improve.
China will no longer subject inbound travellers to quarantine from Jan 8, 2023, putting the country on track to emerge from three years of self-imposed global isolation under a Covid Zero policy that battered the economy and stoked historic public discontent.
Although palm oil production is predicted to rebound in 2022, prices are expected to remain elevated as output gains could struggle to keep pace with continued demand increases for vegoils in general, especially as pandemic restrictions ease.
WASHINGTON: Global vegetable oil supplies have tightened in the last couple of years even as the pandemic slowed the demand growth rate, and that has had the most profound price impact on palm oil, the most widely used vegetable oil.
(Dec 6): Palm oil has dropped to the lowest in two weeks following further losses in rival soybean oil after the Biden administration published last week a proposal for biofuel-blending mandates that were lower than expectations.