Bloomberg 报道说在2009年印度超过中国成为最大的棕榈油买家。
根据从印度溶剂萃取协会—— 一个位于孟买的组织的数据得知，印度在2009年进口了700万公吨棕榈油，而中国在去年进口了640万吨。
B.V. Mehta是该协会的执行理事，他说，这个上升是由于加工食品的需求增长以及干旱条件造成国内植物油产量减少共同造成的。
“印度每年增加2000万人，这相当于澳大利亚的人口，”Mehta在一次会面中告诉Bloomberg，
“这推进了需求的增长，连同不断增加的人均收入一起。”
 图片：从美国农业部（USDA）得到的外国农业服务的棕榈油进口数据。美国农业部使用的是以“市场年”为基础的而不是日历年，因此同文章中报道的数字有差别。 |
油棕是世界上大规模种植产量最高的含油种子。
印尼是最大的棕榈油生产国，之后是马来西亚。
作为棕榈油的进口国，印度和中国之后是巴基斯坦、孟加拉、荷兰、德国和美国。
棕榈油农业的扩大导致了砍伐森林以及其它的环境弊端。自1990年起，有超过一半的种植增长是以牺牲森林为代价的。
India becomes largest buyer of palm oil
India surpassed China as the world’s largest buyer of palm oil in 2009, reports Bloomberg.
According to figures from the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, a processor group based in Mumbai, India imported 7 million metric tons of palm oil in 2009. China imported 6.4 million tons last year.
B.V. Mehta, executive director of the association, said the rise is attributed to increasing demand for processed foods and drought conditions, which reduced domestic production of vegetable oil.
“India is adding 20 million people, or equivalent to an Australia, to its population every year,” Mehta told Bloomberg in an interview. “That’s driving demand, along with rising per-capita incomes.”
The oil palm is the world’s highest-yield oilseed grown on commercial-scale.
Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil, followed by Malaysia.
As palm oil importers, India and China are followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States.
Expansion of oil palm agriculture has been linked to deforestation and other environmental ills. Since 1990 more than half of plantation growth has occurred at the expense of forests.
PHOTO:
Palm oil import data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service. The USDA uses a “marketing year” basis rather than the calendar year, hence the difference from the figures reported in the article.