Palm oil in the USA

Almost all the primary derivatives of oil palm fruit which are imported into the USA comprise simply refined palm oil and, to a lesser extent, simply refined palm kernel oil.  The weight of the latter almost doubled between 2000 and 2015 - to roughly 300,000 tonnes per annum. In contrast, the USA's annual imports of simply refined palm oil increased from about 200,000 tonnes to roughly one million tonnes during the middle of last decade, remaining at that level until 2013.  Since then, it has increased (to nearly 1.2 million tonnes),-a surge in imports from Indonesia having more than offset a steep decline in imports from Malaysia (which used to supply almost all the total).

The import value per unit of weight of the USA's simply refined palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia almost halved between 2012 and 2015.  This tends to suggest that it would be a dereliction of duty for investors and governments to seek further exposure to risk in the upstream palm oil sector - irrespective of their duty in the context of climate change.

The great majority of the increase in simply refined palm oil has been imported through the customs districts of New Orleans, Savannah and, to a lesser extent new York and San Francisco.  The surge in imports from Indonesia was supplied intially through New Orleans and subsequently through Savannah.  Most of the increase in the USA's imports of simply refined palm kernel oil entered through Savannah.

The enterprises which are culpable for the "footprint" (not only its social and environmental impact) of most of that surge in imports are not necessarily located in or near those two customs districts.  However, one Japanese multi-national which has an affiliation[-] with one of the largest palm oil groups operating in Indonesia[-] (whose controversial supplies allegedly include oil palm fruit from the Leuser Ecosystem area[-]) has a base in Savannah[-] and, judging by their names (which start with the letters palm or palk), a number of that subsidiary's products would seem to derive from palm oil or palm kernel oil. The company is reported to procure from another controversial palm oil group.[-]