Overall, the value of palm oil imports accelerated by 51% for all importing countries since 2017. Five years earlier, international purchases of palm oil cost $33.6 billion.
Year over year, globally imported palm oil increased by 50% from $33.8 billion during 2020.
An edible vegetable oil, palm oil is derived from the reddish pulp of oil palm plant fruit. Palm oil is a highly saturated vegetable fat used for lower-cost cooking, blending into mayonnaise and as a butter substitute. Palm oil is also an ingredient for biodiesel fuels.
The 5 biggest importers of palm oil are India, China, Pakistan, Netherlands and the United States of America. Collectively, that quintet of major palm oil buyers imported 45% of total palm oil purchased via international markets in 2021.
From a continental perspective, Asian countries imported the highest dollar worth of palm oil during 2021 with purchases valued at $29.6 billion or almost three-fifths (58.4%) of the global total. In second place were European importers at 20.9% while 13.3% of palm oil imported worldwide was delivered to buyers in Africa.
Smaller percentages went to customers in North America (4.5%), Latin America (2.5%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, and Oceania (0.4%) led by Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
For research purposes, the 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 1515 for palm oil and its refractions, whether or not refined.
Palm Oil Imports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that spent the most on imported palm oil during 2021.
- India: US$9.6 billion (18.9% of total imported palm oil)
- China: $5.9 billion (11.7%)
- Pakistan: $3.4 billion (6.7%)
- Netherlands: $2.1 billion (4.1%)
- United States: $1.8 billion (3.6%)
- Spain: $1.53 billion (3%)
- Italy: $1.49 billion (2.9%)
- Bangladesh: $1.45 billion (2.9%)
- Russia: $1.3 billion (2.5%)
- Malaysia: $1.1 billion (2.3%)
- Kenya: $990.7 million (2%)
- Vietnam: $982.8 million (1.9%)
- Egypt: $957.8 million (1.9%)
- Ethiopia: $883.1 million (1.7%)
- Myanmar: $869.6 million (1.7%)
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing markets for palm oil since 2020 were: Ethiopia (up 108.2%), India (up 86.9%), Malaysia (up 74.8%) and the United States of America (up 65.5%).
The smallest year-over-year increase was posted by importers in Spain (up 9.4%).
By value, the listed 15 countries purchased 67.8% of all palm oil imported in 2021.
Palm Oil Imported into India
India’s global purchases of imported palm oil totaled US$9.57 billion in 2021. Below are the top 15 suppliers from which India imported the highest dollar value worth of palm oil during 2021. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country from 2020 to 2021.
- Malaysia: US$4.1 billion (up 166.5% from 2020)
- Indonesia: $3.9 billion (up 22.2%)
- Thailand: $585.8 million (up 422.5%)
- Singapore: $420 million (up 106.4%)
- Papua New Guinea: $242.8 million (up 5497%)
- Nepal: $236.4 million (up 399.2%)
- Ivory Coast: $33.1 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Guinea: $20.8 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Cambodia: $15.4 million (up 473.7%)
- Philippines: $6.8 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Bangladesh: $5.7 million (up 451.3%)
- Liberia: $3.3 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Solomon Islands: $3.2 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Sierra Leone: $495,000 (2020 data unavailable)
- Nigeria: $1,000 (down -92.3%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 99.99998% of palm oil imported by India in 2021.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of palm oil to India since 2020 were: Papua New Guinea (up 5,497%), Cambodia (up 473.7%), Bangladesh (up 451.3%) and Thailand (up 422.5%).
Nigeria was the lone top supplier that experienced a decline in the value of palm oil supplied to Indian importers included dragged down by a -92.3% reduction year over year.
Overall, the value of India’s imported palm oil rose by an average 86.9% from all supplying countries since 2020 when palm oil purchased cost $5.1 billion.
Palm Oil Imported into China
Mainland China’s global purchases of imported palm oil totaled US$5.95 billion in 2021. Below are the top suppliers from which China imported the highest dollar value worth of palm oil during 2021. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country from 2020 to 2021.
- Indonesia: US$4.3 billion (up 79.8% from 2020)
- Malaysia: $1.6 billion (down -5.6%)
- Ghana: $2.4 million (up 30,350%)
- Ivory Coast: $1.6 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Thailand: $1.6 million (down -22.7%)
- Philippines: $953,000 (down -10.3%)
- Taiwan: $833,000 (up 67.6%)
- Ecuador: $362,000 (up 5,071%)
- Myanmar: $203,000 (2020 data unavailable)
- Japan: $32,000 (up 146.2%)
- Netherlands: $24,000 (down -94.9%)
- Nigeria: $19,000 (2020 data unavailable)
- Benin: $17,000 (2020 data unavailable)
- Colombia: $13,000 (2020 data unavailable)
- Brazil: $10,000 (up 400%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 99.9998% of palm oil imported by mainland China in 2021.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of palm oil to China since 2020 were: Ghana (up 30,350%), Ecuador (up 5,071%), Brazil (up 400%) and Japan (up 146.2%).
Countries that experienced declines in the value of their palm oil supplied to Chinese importers included: Netherlands (down -94.9%), Thailand (down -22.7%), Philippines (down -10.3%) and Malaysia (down -5.6%).
Overall, the value of China’s imported palm oil expanded by an average 44.2% from all supplying countries since 2020 when palm oil purchased cost $4.1 billion.
Palm Oil Imported into Pakistan
Pakistan’s global purchases of imported palm oil totaled US$3.42 billion in 2021. Below are the top suppliers from which Pakistan imported the highest dollar value worth of palm oil during 2021. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country from 2020 to 2021.
- Indonesia: US$3 billion (up 85.1% from 2020)
- Malaysia: $403.7 million (down -16.4%)
- Philippines: $99,000 (2020 data unavailable)
- Iran: $14,000 (2020 data unavailable)
By value, the listed countries shipped 100% of palm oil imported by Pakistan in 2021.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing supplier of palm oil to Pakistan since 2020 was Indonesia via a 85.1% spike.
Overall, the value of Pakistan’s imported palm oil expanded by an average 61.8% from all supplying countries since 2020 when palm oil purchased cost $2.1 billion.
Palm Oil Imported into the Netherlands
Dutch global purchases of imported palm oil totaled US$2.1 billion in 2021. Below are the top 15 suppliers from which the Netherlands imported the highest dollar value worth of palm oil during 2021. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country from 2020 to 2021.
- Malaysia: US$703.4 million (up 24% from 2020)
- Papua New Guinea: $352.9 million (up 27%)
- Indonesia: $267.7 million (down -27.3%)
- Honduras: $229.3 million (up 31.1%)
- Guatemala: $161.4 million (up 86.7%)
- Colombia: $111.9 million (down -12.7%)
- Germany: $61.4 million (up 25.7%)
- Costa Rica: $50.1 million (up 150.4%)
- Nicaragua: $24.9 million (up 98.3%)
- Belgium: $24.6 million (up 73.1%)
- Solomon Islands: $19.1 million (up 47%)
- Ecuador: $16.5 million (up 146.7%)
- Gabon: $15 million (2020 data unavailable)
- Peru: $15 million (up 312.3%)
- Ivory Coast: $11.1 million (up 98.8%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 98.2% of palm oil imported by the Netherlands in 2021.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of palm oil to Netherlands since 2020 were: Peru (up 312.3%), Costa Rica (up 150.4%), Ecuador (up 146.7%) and Ivory Coast (up 98.8%).
A pair of top providers experienced declines in the value of their palm oil supplied to Dutch importers namely Indonesia (down -27.3% from 2020) and Colombia (down -12.7%).
Overall, the value of palm oil imported into the Netherlands advanced by an average 18.7% from all supplying countries since 2020 when palm oil purchased cost $1.8 billion.
Searchable List of Palm Oil Importers in 2021
The 100 biggest importers of palm oil bought 98.2% of the total value for the world’s purchases of palm oil imports during 2021. Those key importers are showcased in the following automated database.
| Rank | Importer | Palm Oil Imports | 2020-1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | India | $9,568,456,000 | +86.9% |
| 2. | China | $5,946,079,000 | +44.2% |
| 3. | Pakistan | $3,418,838,000 | +61.8% |
| 4. | Netherlands | $2,101,660,000 | +18.7% |
| 5. | United States | $1,806,350,000 | +65.5% |
| 6. | Spain | $1,527,351,000 | +9.4% |
| 7. | Italy | $1,485,306,000 | +19.2% |
| 8. | Bangladesh | $1,451,751,000 | +61.9% |
| 9. | Russia | $1,271,568,000 | +60.3% |
| 10. | Malaysia | $1,148,925,000 | +74.8% |
| 11. | Kenya | $990,743,000 | +19.4% |
| 12. | Vietnam | $982,766,000 | +41.5% |
| 13. | Egypt | $957,793,000 | +30.8% |
| 14. | Ethiopia | $883,072,000 | +108.2% |
| 15. | Myanmar | $869,647,000 | +34.8% |
| 16. | Turkey | $798,193,000 | +51.4% |
| 17. | Germany | $749,951,000 | +23.8% |
| 18. | Belgium | $690,491,000 | +41.5% |
| 19. | Japan | $675,484,000 | +23.5% |
| 20. | South Korea | $661,615,000 | +63.6% |
| 21. | Philippines | $598,865,000 | +990.7% |
| 22. | Saudi Arabia | $577,216,000 | +86.7% |
| 23. | Iran | $531,939,000 | +75.3% |
| 24. | South Africa | $509,223,000 | +56.5% |
| 25. | United Kingdom | $459,897,000 | +41.3% |
| 26. | Nigeria | $445,456,000 | +67.9% |
| 27. | United Arab Emirates | $434,655,000 | +131.1% |
| 28. | Djibouti | $405,538,000 | +74.5% |
| 29. | Brazil | $369,995,000 | +123.8% |
| 30. | Mexico | $359,374,000 | +0.7% |
| 31. | France | $341,500,000 | +6.5% |
| 32. | Poland | $306,429,000 | +35.5% |
| 33. | Mozambique | $295,651,000 | +80.5% |
| 34. | Ghana | $288,856,000 | +36.9% |
| 35. | Nepal | $286,720,000 | +230.4% |
| 36. | Ukraine | $277,323,000 | +59% |
| 37. | Sweden | $242,997,000 | +50.5% |
| 38. | Taiwan | $240,872,000 | +53.8% |
| 39. | Oman | $227,371,000 | +50.3% |
| 40. | Denmark | $216,889,000 | +37.9% |
| 41. | Tanzania | $213,580,000 | +31.5% |
| 42. | Afghanistan | $213,107,000 | +70.8% |
| 43. | Singapore | $195,956,000 | +48.4% |
| 44. | Estonia | $186,939,000 | +33.2% |
| 45. | Colombia | $177,682,000 | +11% |
| 46. | Ireland | $173,109,000 | +37% |
| 47. | Yemen | $155,780,000 | +27.1% |
| 48. | Greece | $143,631,000 | +127.4% |
| 49. | Angola | $135,753,000 | -34.1% |
| 50. | Haiti | $135,178,000 | +6.6% |
| 51. | Iraq | $134,582,000 | +76% |
| 52. | Senegal | $129,258,000 | -24.9% |
| 53. | Ivory Coast | $127,723,000 | +381.1% |
| 54. | Canada | $126,259,000 | +26.1% |
| 55. | Algeria | $124,616,000 | +97.6% |
| 56. | El Salvador | $119,107,000 | +34.4% |
| 57. | Zambia | $115,119,000 | +110.5% |
| 58. | Madagascar | $113,510,000 | +18.3% |
| 59. | Niger | $100,242,000 | -2.9% |
| 60. | Somalia | $96,435,000 | -17.3% |
| 61. | Uganda | $93,956,000 | -65.4% |
| 62. | Dominican Republic | $91,614,000 | +130.3% |
| 63. | Sri Lanka | $89,368,000 | +0.1% |
| 64. | Australia | $85,404,000 | +42% |
| 65. | Sudan | $82,947,000 | +20.1% |
| 66. | Austria | $78,110,000 | +157.5% |
| 67. | Benin | $77,549,000 | +11.2% |
| 68. | Nicaragua | $75,708,000 | +45.4% |
| 69. | Togo | $70,760,000 | +4% |
| 70. | Romania | $69,743,000 | +49.4% |
| 71. | Guinea | $64,120,000 | +29.6% |
| 72. | Azerbaijan | $62,001,000 | +12.7% |
| 73. | Guatemala | $61,707,000 | +175.8% |
| 74. | Jordan | $61,189,000 | +154.6% |
| 75. | Morocco | $59,701,000 | +108.6% |
| 76. | Congo | $56,592,000 | -3.9% |
| 77. | Tunisia | $56,482,000 | +31.5% |
| 78. | Honduras | $54,647,000 | +75.2% |
| 79. | Papua New Guinea | $46,309,000 | +262% |
| 80. | Democr. Rep. Congo | $46,183,000 | +395.5% |
| 81. | Hungary | $43,734,000 | +24.4% |
| 82. | Chile | $41,967,000 | +73.5% |
| 83. | Serbia | $41,765,000 | +67.7% |
| 84. | Syria | $41,536,000 | +217.3% |
| 85. | Mauritania | $40,920,000 | +269.4% |
| 86. | Israel | $37,457,000 | +88.2% |
| 87. | Portugal | $36,525,000 | +23% |
| 88. | Bulgaria | $35,525,000 | +14.6% |
| 89. | Qatar | $34,699,000 | +97.6% |
| 90. | New Zealand | $33,759,000 | +28.2% |
| 91. | Kazakhstan | $33,624,000 | -13.8% |
| 92. | Kuwait | $33,358,000 | +67.8% |
| 93. | Zimbabwe | $32,945,000 | +73.4% |
| 94. | Lebanon | $32,295,000 | +57.5% |
| 95. | Cameroon | $30,309,000 | +0.5% |
| 96. | Uruguay | $29,151,000 | +23.9% |
| 97. | Liberia | $28,179,000 | +16.6% |
| 98. | Croatia | $28,148,000 | +59.5% |
| 99. | Bahrain | $27,380,000 | +122.3% |
| 100. | Switzerland | $24,538,000 | +11.7% |
The fastest-growing buyers among the top 100 palm oil importers are the Philippines (up 990.7% from 2020), Democratic Republic of the Congo (up 395.5%), Ivory Coast (up 381.1%) and Mauritania (up 269.4%).
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of any of the columns in the above table. An entry of 0% in the right-most column means that no 2020 data was available.
See also Palm Oil Exports by Country, Sugar Imports by Country, Imported Pickles by Country, Butter Exports by Country and Top Cashews Exports & Imports by Country Plus Average Prices
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Imports – Commodities. Accessed on July 15, 2022
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on July 15, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on July 15, 2022
Wikipedia, Palm oil. Accessed on July 15, 2022
