Japan palm oil consumption remains steady

TOKYO, Mar 31 (Commodity Online): Quake hit Japan's palm oil consumption remained steady despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, but demand could potentially increase in the longer term. Analysts said palm oil demand in Japan is still steady but the short supply of electricity may prompt many Japanese companies to reduce production hours and disrupt supply chains. Looking beyond the potential near-term demand disruptions, however, palm oil may account for a larger share of Japan's edible oil consumption due to an increasing appetite for food that is free of trans fats. Japan's dominant power supplier, Tokyo Electric Power Co., introduced rolling blackouts that may last until late April after it lost around 40% of its generating capacity. The March 11 disaster disabled cooling systems at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant, shutting the plants down and triggering a nuclear crisis. ISF, 80 per cent owned by the Tokyo-listed Nisshin Oillio Group Limited and 20 per cent owned by edible oil firm Lam Soon, is a major producer of premium specialty food fats and oils, exporting around 40,000 tonnes to Japan last year. The country is the sixth-largest market for Malaysian palm oil, buying close to 600,000 tonnes last year. Japan consumes around 2.3 million-2.5 million tonnes of vegetable oils include soyoil, rapeseed oil and palm oil. Palm oil, a key ingredient in consumer products ranging from instant noodles and cooking oils to margarine and ice cream, is an alternative to oils that have been treated to increase the shelf-life of food products, as it is naturally stable even at room temperatures. Palm oil is higher in the saturated fats believed to contribute to various health problems than many rival vegetable oils, but trans fats have been found to pose far greater risks to consumers' health.