Palm oil or known as Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is one of the main ingredients used for thousands of products that are useful for humans.
As we know, palm oil can be used as a raw material for making food, beauty products, hygiene, and biodiesel. Therefore, as the years go by, the demand for palm oil is higher.
The largest use of palm oil is for cooking in every household around the world. Because palm oil can produce foods that are more savory, last longer, and are more delicious.
Indonesia has a palm plantation in Medan which is one of the largest oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Although Indonesia is the largest palm oil-producing country in the world, several other countries also produce palm oil.
Best Palm Oil Producing Countries
Oil palm can be grown in tropical countries, namely countries that get full sun and have high enough rainfall. So usually palm oil-producing countries are countries with warm temperatures.
Here are some of the largest palm oil producers in the world:
- Indonesia
Indonesia has been known as the world’s largest producer of palm oil since the 1990s. Palm plantation in Medan are one of the largest palm oil plantations in Indonesia that produce the largest palm oil.
In 2019, palm oil production in Indonesia even reached 43.5 tons and the annual growth was 3.61%.
Palm plantation in Medan are just one example of the largest oil palm plantations in Indonesia. Other areas such as Riau, North Kalimantan, and North Sumatra also have the largest oil palm plantations.
- Malaysia
Not much different from Indonesia, Malaysia is also the largest palm oil producer in the world because it can produce 19.3 tons of palm oil in 2019.
Malaysia has an area of 5.35 million hectares of oil palm and is spread across various regions. However, although the amount of land is quite high, the growth rate of palm oil production in Malaysia is very low at 0.96% per year.
- Thailand
Thailand is one of the largest tropical palm oil-producing countries in the world. Still, both in Southeast Asia, Thailand managed to produce up to 3 million tons of palm oil in 2019.
This number is increasing every year. Whereas Thailand only has 810 hectares of oil palm land. For the average rate of production growth, Thailand is much better than Malaysia, reaching 3.45% per year.
Although this country is a small country, Thailand has managed to prove that they are the largest palm oil producer in the world and can meet global market demands.
- Colombia
Colombia is the only country in Latin America that has succeeded in producing large amounts of palm oil. In 2019, Colombia managed to produce 1.68 million tons of palm oil on 260,000 hectares of land.
However, the growth rate of palm oil production is also quite high, namely 3.38% per year.
- Nigeria
The last largest palm oil-producing country in the world is Nigeria. This country is located on the African continent and is the largest producer of palm oil.
Because the production figure reached 1.01 million tons in 2019. Even though Nigeria only has an area of 2.5 million hectares of palm oil spread across various regions.
These are some of the largest palm oil-producing countries in the world. One of the largest oil palm plantations in the world is in Medan. Even palm plantation in Medan are one of the largest contributors to palm oil exports in Indonesia.
Of course, the largest palm oil-producing country in the world is included in a tropical country that gets full sun and allows oil palm plants to thrive.