Treats Mini Squares
Production of coconut oil during 2014 was estimated as 3.10 Mt (UN 2019). During the period 2018/2019, coconut oil production was reported to be 3.63 Mt (USDA 2019). Approximately 2.70 Mt of coconut oil were produced in Asia, representing approximately 88.4% of the total production. Largest coconut oil producers are the Philippines, Indonesia, and India with 1.10, 0.91, and 0.39 Mt, respectively. The Philippines and Indonesia are also the biggest coconut exporters with approximately 0.75 and 0.60 Mt of coconut oil exported during 2016, respectively. Moreover, the US and the Netherlands are the major coconut oil importers followed by Malaysia and Germany with approximately 0.51, 0.34, 0.15, and 0.15 Mt of coconut oil imported during 2017. Global copra production is expected to increase by 2%, mainly due to expanding coconut plantations in Vietnam and improving yields in the Philippines (USDA 2017).
Figure 1.1 World production of palm fruit, olives, and most economically important oilseeds. Values represent tonnes produced during 2017.
Source: Data accessed on April 8, 2019 from FAOSTAT, the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database, available at http://www.fao.org/faostat.
1.2.2 Cottonseeds and Cottonseed Oil
Cotton, which is obtained from the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family Malvaceae, is a profit crop for over 20 M farmers in developing countries, mainly cultivated to meet the basic requirements for cotton fabrics (Saxena et al. 2011). Cottonseed is a valuable by‐product of the cotton plant: for every 1 kg of cotton fiber, 1.65 kg of cottonseeds are produced (Saxena et al. 2011). The cottonseed is used to produce oil, mainly for human consumption, and oilseed cake for animal feed. Cottonseed oil fits within the previously mentioned group of plants that are not grown for oil production, and where oil can be considered as a by‐product. However, besides being a “by‐product,” cottonseed oil dominated the US vegetable oil market for almost 100 years (O'Brien et al. 2005). Table 1.1 lists some products containing cottonseed oil that were recently launched into the market.
Cottonseeds were the fifth most produced commodity within the “processed crops” classification of FAOSTAT, surpassed only by barley, sugar, molasses, and palm oil. World production of cottonseeds was measured as 46.98 Mt in 2014 (UN 2019). Although cottonseed production decreased significantly during the period 2015/2016 to 37.76 Mt, it is now slowly recovering and reached 43.39 Mt produced during the period 2018/2019 (USDA 2019a). Major cottonseed producers were China, India, and the US with a production of 12.32, 12.30, and 4.64 Mt. Cottonseed oil production is largely concentrated in India, the US, Pakistan, and China (FAO 2018). In the EU, cotton is produced only in three Member States on around 300 000 ha, mainly in Greece (approximately 80% of European production), Spain (20%, mainly grown in the region of Andalucía), and Bulgaria that produces cotton on less than 1 ha. Globally, major cottonseed exporters are the US, Greece, Australia, and Brazil with average exports of 182.12, 176.42, 166.96, and 95.45 kt/year. Despite being one of the most produced oilseeds, cottonseed oil production during the period 2018/2019 was reported to be 5.17 Mt, significantly lower than the amount of soybean, rapeseed, palm, or sunflower seed oil, which were 57.07, 27.78, 73.49, and 19.49 Mt during the same period (USDA 2019a).
1.2.3 Groundnuts and Groundnut Oil
Groundnut or peanut (Arachys hypogaea L.) is one of the most important oilseed crops in the world. Groundnut consumption as well as commercial products containing groundnuts vary in large proportions as peanuts have been developed into a large number of products like roasted peanuts, peanut butter, peanut paste, peanut flour, peanut “milk,” or peanut cheese analogues (Arya et al. 2016). In Western countries, groundnuts are mainly used for direct consumption as salted and roasted nuts. In the US, groundnuts are also utilized for making peanut butter and confectionary. In turn, in China and India groundnuts are primarily crushed for oil production (Pandey et al. 2014).
The cultivation of peanuts, which was originated in South America, has expanded and groundnuts are currently being produced in over 100 countries of Asia, Africa, and the Americas (Pandey et al. 2014). Over 70% of the groundnut growing area comes under arid and semi‐arid regions (Shasidhar et al. 2017). Figure 1.1 shows the annual production of groundnuts per country during 2017.
