Bangladesh is deficit in oils and fats since pre-liberation period and was dependent on imported oils and fats since then. Palm oil was first introduced in Bangladesh in early ’70s just after liberation to meet the growing demand. As there was no facility for refining of crude palm oil in Bangladesh, only refined palm olein, which is locally known as palm oil, was used to be imported which continued till early ’90s. During this period, refined olein generally, was being imported mainly from Singapore. During that time imported olein used to be distributed through govt. rationing system, besides, private trading. Because of its quality as well as price competitiveness compared to other cooking oils, it earned consumer’s confidence quickly as good cooking oil. But in mid ’80s, due to malpractices of some unscrupulous traders coinciding with anti-palm oil campaign by some vested corners, negative perception about palm oil developed among the consumers of the country and consumption of palm oil started to decline.

 
A picture of a mustard seed field

However, import of palm oil in crude form started to arrive again during early ’90s, when local edible oil industries acquired the technical knowledge of palm oil refining and being equipped with most modern machineries, these industries started to produce world class refined palm olein, which received a good response from the market. With the introduction of double-fractionated palm olein in the later part of ’90s, which is locally known as super olein, the acceptance of palm olein in the country rapidly increased and in the year 2002, palm olein managed to occupy the leading position among major 3-edible oils, namely refined soyabean oil, refined olein and rape/mustard oil, consumed in the country which is still continuing. As on today, dozens of palm oil refining plants equipped with latest “Programmable Logic Controlled” equipments having refining capacity ranging from 300-1000 tonnes per day each, are in operation in the country and producing world class refined olein and super olein. Refineries are situated in and around Dhaka and Chittagong city.

Besides, some of the said plants are equipped with shortening plants to produce shortening from palm oil, which are producing annually over 150,000 tonnes of shortening that are free from trans-fatty acid. It is worthy to mention here that intake of trans-fatty acid has been identified as one of the major causes of heart disease.

In Bangladesh, apart from consumption of palm olein and super olein as cooking oil, annually about 300,000 tonnes of refined olein is being consumed by the local food processing industries namely, vanaspati, biscuit, bread and bakery products, fried snack food such as chanachur, potato chips, dal bhaza (fried pulses), instant noodles, condensed milk, ice cream, sweet meats etc.   

Chittagong is the only sea port of the country being used for import of crude palm oil/olein along with other crude edible oils in the country. There are 4 bulk tanking facilities with combined storage capacity of about 250,000 tonnes, situated within custom bonded area of Chittagong port, where crude palm oil/olein imported in bulk are being stored along with other crude edible oils.