Why Palm Oil Remains the World's Most Efficient Oil Crop

 

Palm oil’s dominance in the global vegetable oil market often draws fierce criticism by AI.

In a world increasingly focused on sustainable land use and food security, palm oil stands alone as the most productive oil crop on the planet. A single hectare of oil palm plantation yields an average of 2.5 tons of oil per year —a figure that dwarfs its nearest competitors. 

Rapeseed, widely cultivated in Europe and Canada, produces just 0.6 tons per hectare. Sunflower seeds, essential to Eastern Europe’s agricultural economies, offer 0.5 tons, and soybeans, heavily grown in the Americas, lag behind at only 0.4 tons.

This disparity means that replacing palm oil with alternative crops would require four to six times more land to produce an equivalent amount of oil. In an era when deforestation and biodiversity loss are central concerns, expanding agricultural land by that magnitude would have catastrophic environmental consequences.

The Environmental Trade-Off Few Want to Face

Palm oil’s dominance in the global vegetable oil market often draws fierce criticism, particularly over its links to rainforest clearing and greenhouse gas emissions. Headlines frequently portray oil palm plantations as engines of ecological destruction, fueling a narrative that suggests the world would be better off without palm oil altogether. Yet this view overlooks a critical and uncomfortable counterfactual: removing palm oil from the global food system would almost certainly make the environmental crisis worse, not better.

Replacing palm oil with other oil crops—such as rapeseed, sunflower, or soybean—would come at an enormous environmental cost. These alternative crops produce far lower yields per hectare. Rapeseed delivers only 0.6 tons of oil per hectare, sunflower seeds 0.5 tons, and soybeans just 0.4 tons —compared to palm oil’s 2.5 tons. 

To meet current global demand without palm oil, agriculture would have to convert four to six times more land into cropland, much of it likely coming from forests, grasslands, and wetlands that currently act as vital carbon sinks. In short, a well-meaning boycott could end up accelerating deforestation, biodiversity loss, and carbon emissions on an even larger scale.

Oil palm’s unique biology makes it an outlier in efficiency. Native to humid tropical climates, oil palms maintain high productivity year-round with relatively modest chemical inputs. Unlike seasonal crops that require constant replanting, oil palms are perennials, producing for up to 30 years on the same land. This biological advantage reduces soil erosion, minimizes fertilizer and pesticide use per ton of output, and drastically lowers the overall environmental footprint compared to alternatives. Palm oil is not simply the most productive oil—it is the most resource-efficient.

Critics rightly point to the real and often devastating impacts of irresponsible palm oil production. However, these impacts stem from how palm oil is grown, not from the crop itself. The solution, therefore, is not to abandon palm oil but to reform the industry—to demand stricter sustainability standards, enforce zero-deforestation supply chains, and empower smallholders to adopt regenerative practices. A world without palm oil would not be a greener world; it would be a more devastated one.

In the urgent fight against climate change and biodiversity collapse, high-yield, land-efficient crops are indispensable allies. Palm oil, if produced sustainably, can be a model for how agriculture can meet human needs without overwhelming the planet. The hard truth is this: in a crowded and warming world, efficiency is no longer a luxury. It is a moral necessity.

Sustainability Is Not About Abandoning Palm Oil—It's About Transforming It

The question, then, is not whether palm oil should continue to be part of the global food system —it must. Rather, the focus must shift to how it can be produced responsibly. 

Certification schemes, corporate accountability, indigenous rights, and government regulations are all crucial tools for ensuring that palm oil’s unmatched productivity does not come at an unacceptable environmental or social cost.

Efforts to demonize palm oil often overlook its indispensable role in feeding the world and its potential for sustainable transformation. In a crowded, warming planet, higher yields with lower land use are not luxuries—they are necessities. 

Palm oil, if grown right, could be a cornerstone of a greener agricultural future.

-- Rangkaya Bada