KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Bernama) -- Palm oil will continue to make inroadsin the US food industry and this will likely benefit Malaysia, which isthe largest exporter of palm oil to the US, says Dennis Maxfield, ownerand publisher of The Trade News Service, a weekly publication for the fatsand oils industry.

He said that palm oil consumption in the US is currently growing due tothe presence and efforts of the American Palm Oil Council.

"It is also due partly to the properties of palm oil and in particular thefact that since palm oil does not require hydrogenation for storage, itcan be billed as trans-fat free," Maxfield said at the Annual Palm &Lauric Oils Conference and Exhibition: Price Outlook 2005/2006 hereFriday.

According to the Oil World Annual Report, Malaysia supplied about 90percent of the 431,000 tonnes of palm oil imported by the US in 2004.

Maxfield said that the requirement by the US Food and Drug Administration(FDA) that all food labels disclose the amount of trans-fat beginning2006, could also help to spur demand for palm oil in the US food industry.

He said that the marketing year 2004/2005 beginning October saw a carry inof major oils and fats totalling 11.62 million tonnes with the mostimpressive rates of growth seen in palm oil and soybean oil.

Since 1990, for example, world production of soybean oil has slightly morethan double to an estimated 32.31 million tonnes for the 2004/2005marketing year while production of palm oil has nearly tripled to anestimated 31.01 million tonnes.

Overall, the world's consumption of oils and fats during the 2004/2005marketing year is expected to jump to 128.7 million tonnes, a five percentincrease from the 122.6 million tonnes consumed in 2003/2005 and nearlytriple the 43.5 million tonnes consumed in 1975.

Out of this world consumption, soybean oil and palm oil consumption isexpected to account for 31.8 million tonnes and 30.2 million tonnesrespectively, he said.

He said that animal fats consumed an estimated 21.37 million tonnes, withrapeseed oil 15.1 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, lauric oil consumption is estimated at 6.9 million tonnes, withcoconut oil at 3.4 million and palm kernel oil at 3.51 million.

-- BERNAMA