Oiling squeaky wheels of trade

6m tons of palm oil imported in 2013 to meet rising demand

China must take effective measures to gain more pricing power in the international palm oil market to prevent it from being harmed by major producers amid growing uncertainties in global agricultural trade, said industry experts.

The widening supply gap of domestic edible oil and decreasing oil cropland have forced China, the world's second-largest palm oil importer after India, to purchase more palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia in recent years and increasingly deploy its money outside the country to meet the surging demand.