A new study from Wageningen University demonstrates palm oil significantly outperforms both soybean and rapeseed oils across critical sustainability metrics, particularly in land use efficiency and economic contributions to producing nations.
The research, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, compared the three major vegetable oils’ contributions to UN Sustainable Development Goals through 2040, with findings that directly contradict the narrative often promoted by European agricultural lobbies.
The study confirms what the palm oil community has long maintained: oil palm is by far the most land-efficient oil crop: it produces 3.2 tons of crude oil per hectare, approximately 2.4 times more efficient than soybean and 2.1 times more efficient than rapeseed in current production conditions.
Even under “very ambitious” improvement scenarios projected to 2040, oil palm maintains its lead, producing 4.8 tons of crude oil per hectare compared to 3.1 tons for soybean and 2.6 tons for rapeseed.
The economic data presents an even starker contrast. Palm oil contributes 2.3% to Indonesia’s GDP with an export value of $27.3 billion, compared to just 0.12% GDP contribution from soybean oil in Brazil ($2.06 billion) and 0.04% from rapeseed oil in Germany ($1.77 billion).
For smallholder farmers, the differences are particularly striking. Indonesian oil palm farmers need less than 0.5 hectares to earn minimum wage, while Brazilian soybean farmers require 5-7 hectares and German rapeseed farmers need 15 hectares.
While European agriculture becomes increasingly mechanized, palm oil continues to provide vital employment opportunities. The oil palm sector in Indonesia supports 2.6 million smallholder farmers, compared to just 171,600 in Brazil’s soybean sector and 32,800 in Germany’s rapeseed sector.
The study notes that oil palm expansion has created jobs for landless people, while soybean expansion in Brazil has replaced smallholders with mechanized operations, contributing to rural unemployment.
Although there are current challenges with greenhouse gas emissions from peatland cultivation and palm oil mill effluent (POME), the study demonstrates that these issues are addressable through improved practices. Under ambitious scenarios with methane capture from POME and phasing out of peatland cultivation, palm oil’s GHG emissions could be reduced to 1.0-1.1 tons CO2-equivalent per ton of oil by 2040, comparable to or better than soybean (1.1) and rapeseed (1.4-1.6).
For food security, palm has the lowest price per ton compared to soybean and rapeseed oils, making it the most affordable cooking oil for low-income consumers and helping to close the “fat gap” in regions with food insecurity.
These findings raise serious questions about the European Union’s discriminatory treatment of palm oil, particularly given that:
- Germany’s rapeseed production shows no improvement trajectory under business-as-usual scenarios
- European biodiesel production relies heavily on imports, with Germany using 26% waste cooking oil, 11% imported soybean oil, and 1.2% imported palm oil as feedstock
- The study found that voluntary certification schemes for palm oil better address investor concerns than those for soybean or rapeseed
This is comprehensive research from one of Europe’s leading agricultural research institutions. It provides clear evidence that palm oil, when properly managed, offers superior sustainability performance across multiple dimensions compared to temperate oil crops.
The continued targeting of palm oil by European policies – from the EU Deforestation Regulation to biodiesel restrictions – appears increasingly driven by agricultural protectionism rather than environmental science. As the International Trade Centre’s Executive Director recently warned, such regulations risk being “catastrophic” for global trade while doing little to advance genuine sustainability goals.
The full study, “Comparative study on the sustainability of vegetable oils” by Wageningen University & Research, is available at https://doi.org/10.18174/695647