Cooking oil prices soar by 50% as supply disrupted

[ASEAN NOW News]

Consumers shopping at a supermarket in HCMC's District 1. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

 

A liter of the most affordable vegetable oil now costs VND48,000-55,000 ($2.07-2.38), 50 % higher than in January this year and double the price two years ago.

 

According to VN Express, more expensive products like soybean, sunflower and rice bran oil have surged by 90 percent since 2020 to VND68,000-85,000.

 

Hoa, a shop owner in HCMC’s Go Vap District, said since edible oil prices had been changing constantly, she stopped stocking expensive items.

 

Despite discounts, edible oil has seen the highest price rise in supermarkets.

 

"The surging prices have affected demand", a supermarket manager in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District said.

 

Producers blame the rising prices on higher input costs.

 

Price of palm oil, a leading edible oil, has quadrupled in the last two years.

 

Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, has halted exports to contain soaring prices of the product.

 

The day after it did so on April 28, prices jumped by 2.74 percent to RM7,401 (US$1,612.6) per ton, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council.

 

Other production costs, including transportation and packaging, have also been rising sharply in recent months.

 

"Prices are likely to rise further in the second half of this year if the world market remains volatile, causing shortages in some countries," an executive at a cooking oil company forecast.

 

India, the world’s top buyer of palm, soybean, and sunflower oil, is suffering from rising prices following supply disruptions caused by the conflict in Ukraine, adverse weather in South America and a labor shortage in Malaysia.

 

Ukraine and Russia used to account more than 75 percent of global exports of sunflower oil, one of the world’s four leading edible oils, while Brazil and Argentina are among the largest soybean oil suppliers to India.

 

The same shortage has happened in Europe, with British supermarkets rationing cooking oil and prices quadrupling in Spain following panic buying.

 

Business website Trading Economics expects palm oil prices to scale a new high of $1,665 in the next 12 months.

 

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[ThailandRyan]

The secondary issue with rising food cooking oil prices will be the rise in cost for both processed foods and then your meals in restaurants.  Prices have to be spread across the board unfortunately.  Inflation and possible recessions are facing countries as I write this.  This will also affect tourism as well, as increased costs are realized. 

[NE1]

I think we will be in for a price hike also.

My Mrs says that there hasn't been any of her normal cooking oil on the shelves for weeks.

[ThailandRyan]

5 minutes ago, NE1 said:

I think we will be in for a price hike also.

My Mrs says that there hasn't been any of her normal cooking oil on the shelves for weeks.

We had to go to 3 shops before we found what we use, the shelves are getting thin here in BKK.  Makro was out of what we use, which tells me that the restaurants saw this coming and stocked up as three weeks ago we saw full pallets of the specific cooking oil with Tags on them for customers.....guess we should have bought then, but just thought after Songkran people were restocking...

[Adumbration]

Shelves empty here. Luckily I have lots of old tubes of KY.

[ikke1959]

I think that it is manipulated by the whole sellers to make more profits by export to other countries.. partly to upgrade the bad economic figures of the country and secondly for he profit caused by the Ukranian war...The greed is unlimited

[ThailandRyan]

42 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

I think that it is manipulated by the whole sellers to make more profits by export to other countries.. partly to upgrade the bad economic figures of the country and secondly for he profit caused by the Ukranian war...The greed is unlimited

So it is all because of the Ukrainian war.....give me a break.  It is because of a lack of processing and a global shortage, it is just not here in Thailand.

[ikke1959]

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

So it is all because of the Ukrainian war.....give me a break.  It is because of a lack of processing and a global shortage, it is just not here in Thailand.

It is not the Ukranian war .........it is the excuse they use .........Ukraine is producing sunflower oil...but price in Thailand doesn't need to rise so much as the country can produce enough for itself, but they export because the prices are rising worldwide and the profits they can make are higher.... Nothing for theown people but everything for the greed of the super wealthy here already