• palm oil under pressure in Lesotho
  • palm oil under pressure in Lesotho
  • palm oil under pressure in Lesotho
  • palm oil under pressure in Lesotho
  • Why did the palm oil industry fail in Africa?
  • In the late 2000s, a commodity boom spurred a rush of land deals in West and Central Africa for palm oil development, raising fears of deforestation and land grabbing. Researchers say that cross-border campaigning and resistance by community land rights organizations is a major reason why the industry has faltered in Africa.
  • Where did palm oil come from?
  • When commodity prices spiked in the late 2000s, multinational agribusiness giants smelled profits. Eager to branch out of crowded Southeast Asian rainforests, some palm oil companies set their sights on Africa, where governments in countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cameroon, and Côte d’Ivoire assured them that they had land to spare.
  • Who bought palm oil from Africa?
  • Drost and her colleagues also used publicly available mill data to trace purchases of palm oil from Africa to international buyers. Nestlé, General Mills, Avon and Bunge were among the companies said to have bought the commodity from Sofcin’s plantations on the continent.
  • How many palm oil companies are there in Africa?
  • More than 300,000 hectares (741,300 acres) of them are owned by just five companies: Socfin, Wilmar, Olam, Siat, and Straight KKM. Socfin is the largest industrial palm oil producer in Africa, with nearly 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) planted in seven countries.
  • Does Nigeria's forested Edo State have a potential for palm oil development?
  • The report also said that Nigeria’s forested Edo state has recently seen a rush of interest by foreign investors, as the powerful West African nation looks to ramp up production, partially by opening up Edo’s forest reserves to palm oil development.
  • How many palm oil projects have been abandoned?
  • Between 2008 and 2019, 27 palm oil projects that were to have covered 1.37 million hectares (3.39 million acres) of land have either “failed or been abandoned” in the region, and of the remaining 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of forest currently under concession, less than 10% has been converted into plantations.