The Indonesian government announced Thursday, April 28, 2022, the suspension of all its palm oil exports… of which the country provides 60% of world production. India, China, Pakistan and the European Union are among its main customers. In France, annual imports vary between 347,000 tonnes and 970,000 tonnes. This oilseed is found mainly in processed food products such as biscuits, chocolates, crisps as well as in spreads. The Ferrero Group (manufacturer of the Nutella and Ferrero Rocher brands), which sources a third of its production from Indonesia, is “monitoring the situation closely”. Palm oil is also used today as an alternative to sunflower oil by certain manufacturers to cope with the shortage caused by the war in Ukraine. Read also: Manufacturers authorized to replace sunflower oil without modifying the packaging Palm oil also used as fuel The food industry is not the only consumer of this oil. The environmental defense association WWF estimates that “biofuels represent nearly 20% of the palm oil imported by France”. In 2021, the Council of State confirmed the exclusion of palm oil from the list of biofuels and therefore the end of the associated tax advantage, in order to limit the increase in imports. TotalEnergies, which imports an average of 100,000 tonnes of palm oil each year, plans to end its production of palm-based biofuels by 2023. Read also: With the war in Ukraine, sunflower oil is increasingly rarer and becomes rationed Finally, we can find this oil, but in a lesser proportion, in the manufacture of many cosmetics and cleaning products such as lipsticks and detergents. It is prized for its moisturizing and softening properties. Regularly denounced by NGOs, in particular because of the deforestation it had generated, palm oil production has been declining for the past two years in Indonesia as in Malaysia, the other giant of this market. Nutella, biofuels, cosmetics… France deprived of palm oil by IndonesiaEXPAND