1. World production of oils and fats

In recent years, the production of edible oils and fats has been growing faster than the world's population. One reason for this is that rising per capita incomes are also leading to increased consumption of oils and fats. Another reason is that edible oils and fats are also used as renewable raw materials in non-food applications such as oleochemistry, and more recently in biodiesel production.

Table 1 illustrates this growth in production. According to table 1 , total world production has risen from 110 million tonnes in 2000 to an estimated 190 million tonnes in 2012. This corresponds...