Imports of palm oil and other tropical oils to Japan remain steady. These trends are driven by the relative price to other types of oils and on expectations for the function of tropical oils. Despite decreased imports of coconut oil and palm kernel oil, the total import amount in 2016 was 769,000 tons, a year-on-year (YOY) increase of 2.0%. Among this amount, imports of palm oil were 647,000 tons (up 4.4% YOY), imports of coconut oil were 43,000 tons (down 18.2% YOY), and imports of palm kernel oil were 79,000 tons (down 4.1% YOY).
In terms of palm oil demand in Japan, assuming that the current price system remains steady, replacement for other types of oil seems to be nearly finished. Focus is now being placed on expansion into new fields through technological innovation, non-food uses such as fuel, etc., and use as an alternative to fish oil in the farmed fish industry, etc.