Latin American palm oil output rising

Central and South American palm oil production is rising rapidly but high domestic consumption is curbing exports, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday. It forecast the six main central and South American producing countries would raise palm oil output to 2.105 million tonnes in the 2008 calendar year, up from 1.876 million tonnes in 2007.
The six countries are Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador. Malaysia and Indonesia dominate world palm oil production. Brazil's 2008 output is likely to rise to 220,000 tonnes from 190,000 tonnes in 2007, it said.
A significant rise in Brazilian production was forecast after 2010 partly because of Brazilian planting programmes to prevent further illegal clearing of tropical rain forests. The six main countries exported an estimated 422,000 tonnes of palm oil in January-June 2008, up from 397,000 tonnes in January-June 2007.