• palm oil machine-cereals and oils in Congo
  • palm oil machine-cereals and oils in Congo
  • palm oil machine-cereals and oils in Congo
  • palm oil machine-cereals and oils in Congo
  • Is palm oil outpacing production in Congo?
  • Palm oil is a standard ingredient in Congolese kitchens, but it’s also commonly used to make soap. Now, demand is outpacing production – and some families are getting priced out of the nutritional staple. Louise Menga has been selling palm oil in Kisangani’s central market for seven years.
  • How much does palm oil cost in Congo?
  • Akambo is one of them. Palm-oil prices are rising in markets across Kisangani, the capital of DRC’s northeastern Tshopo province and a major trading hub with a population of about 1 million. Akambo says she’s left with few options to feed her family. “I need to pay 800 Congolese francs (50 cents) for one bottle of palm oil,” she says.
  • Are the Congo Basin's leaders paying attention to oil palm expansion?
  • There are some early signs that the Congo Basin’s leaders are already paying attention to the potential environmental trade-offs of oil palm expansion – like the Marrakesh Declaration, in which seven African governments pledge a shift towards sustainable, low-carbon palm oil production.
  • Is Africa a big exporter of palm oil?
  • Africa’s contribution to global palm oil supplies declined from 77 percent in 1961 to less than 4 percent in 2014, as the crop boomed in Malaysia and Indonesia. But many of the Congo Basin’s most forested countries are dreaming big. Cameroon aims to double palm oil production by 2035, and Gabon has ambitions of becoming a leading exporter.
  • Will palm oil be the next frontier?
  • Instead, palm oil’s next frontier is likely to be the rainforests of the Congo Basin, in Central Africa – where a quarter of the world’s tropical forest carbon stocks are stored. Will history repeat?
  • Does palm oil expansion necessarily lead to rampant deforestation?
  • Does Cameroon produce palm oil?
  • In Cameroon, smallholders cultivate palm oil on roughly twice as much land as industrial agribusinesses – though, due to low yields, they produce only a third of the country’s palm oil. (Smallholders is a catch-all term that includes both subsistence farmers cultivating less than a hectare and larger-scale independent farmers.)