Palm Oil in India: Health, Environment, Economy, and the Urgent Need to Reclaim Traditional Oils

Over the past few decades, palm oil has quietly entered nearly every corner of the Indian food system. It is found in packaged snacks, biscuits, bakery items, instant foods, sweets, and is widely used for frying in hotels, restaurants, roadside eateries, and catering services. For most consumers, palm oil remains invisible, hidden behind the generic label of “vegetable oil.” Yet its impacts are far from invisible, affecting health, ecosystems, and livelihoods alike.

For Keralites, the story of edible oils is deeply personal. In childhood, most households, including my own, relied almost entirely on coconut oil, prized for its flavour, cultural significance, and perceived health benefits. During school years, I remember palm oil gradually appearing in kitchens. At the time, many believed it was a modern and healthier alternative to coconut oil, and it slowly began replacing the traditional oil in daily cooking.

The Kerala Palmolein Import Case is one of the most notable political and economic controversies related to palm oil in the state’s history. In the early 1990s, the Kerala government, led by Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, approved the import of 15,000 tonnes of refined palm oil (palmolein) from a Singapore-based company at a price reportedly higher than the international market rate. Critics alleged that the deal caused a financial loss to the state exchequer and was executed without proper tender procedures. The controversy escalated into a legal and political issue, with high-ranking officials, including state ministers and bureaucrats, facing accusations of irregularities. Years later, the case resurfaced when the appointment of P. J. Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) was challenged by the Supreme Court due to his involvement in the palmolein import issue.

The case had a profound influence on public perception and household oil consumption. The sudden reduction in palm oil availability led many Keralites to return to traditional coconut oil, rediscovering the oil that had been a staple for generations. Beyond this immediate reaction, institutional support strengthened coconut oil usage. Kerala has, at various points since 2007, discouraged palm oil imports through its ports through policy decisions aimed at protecting local coconut growers and the coconut oil industry, supported by the Coconut Development Board and farmer groups, reflecting a broader effort to defend the local coconut economy from cheap palm oil competition. Additionally, Kerala’s state-run cooperative Kerafed worked to procure copra and produce coconut oil, particularly during high-demand periods like Onam, ensuring supply and stabilizing prices. The Kerala Government (Supplyco) also provided coconut oil at subsidised rates to ration card holders and took steps to control price volatility, while the Food Safety Department conducted inspections and campaigns (like “Operation Nalikera”) to prevent adulteration and support safe consumption.

In recent years, India has also experienced trade-related palm oil controversies on the international stage. For example, in 2019–2020, diplomatic tensions arose between India and Malaysia after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticized India’s actions in Kashmir and its new citizenship law. In response, India’s commerce authorities informally advised refiners to avoid Malaysian palm oil, leading to a temporary reduction in imports. The issue, however, was resolved in 2020, and trade gradually resumed, illustrating how politics, diplomacy, and international relations can directly affect the availability and price of palm oil in India.

Today, palm oil is widely available in Kerala once again, both in retail and commercial use. It is sold in supermarkets, grocery stores, and local markets, often labeled as “refined vegetable oil” or “palm oil.” Many hotels, restaurants, and catering services continue to use it for deep-frying and cooking because it is cheaper, heat-stable, and has a long shelf life. While households in Kerala still use coconut oil for traditional dishes, most families now use a mix of oils, including palm oil, rice bran oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil, depending on price, availability, and purpose. The Kerala Coconut Board and cooperatives like Kerafed continue to promote coconut oil, but there is no ban preventing palm oil sales, giving consumers free access to both. This reflects how Kerala’s households today navigate a diverse oil landscape, balancing tradition, convenience, and affordability.

Palm oil today sits at the intersection of public health, environmental sustainability, agricultural livelihoods, and national economic security. Understanding its implications is not about blaming a single oil, but about recognizing how large-scale dietary shifts, industrial food systems, policy decisions, and consumer choices collectively shape the health of people, farmers, and ecosystems.

What Is Palm Oil and Why Has It Become So Dominant?

Palm oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). It is semi-solid at room temperature, has a long shelf life, and remains stable at high frying temperatures. These properties make it attractive to food manufacturers and commercial kitchens.

There are two forms:

• Crude or red palm oil, which retains natural carotenoids and antioxidants.

• Refined palm oil, which undergoes bleaching, deodorization, and high-heat processing and is the most commonly used form in India.

India predominantly consumes refined palm oil, largely imported, because it is cheaper than most edible oils and suits mass-scale food production.

Health Implications

Saturated Fat and Cardiovascular Risk

Palm oil contains a high proportion of saturated fatty acids, particularly palmitic acid. While fats are essential nutrients, excessive intake of saturated fats is strongly associated with elevated LDL cholesterol levels. Elevated LDL cholesterol contributes to plaque formation in blood vessels, increasing the risk of coronary artery disease, heart attacks, and strokes.

India already faces a growing burden of non-communicable diseases. Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of mortality, often affecting people at younger ages compared to Western countries. Dietary patterns rich in refined oils and deep-fried foods play a significant role in this trend.

Processing and Oxidative Stress

The refining of palm oil involves high temperatures that can generate oxidation products and potentially harmful compounds. When such oils are repeatedly reheated, as commonly practiced in restaurants, the formation of toxic by-products increases. These compounds contribute to chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and cellular damage over long-term exposure.

The Broader Dietary Context

It is important to clarify that palm oil is not the only problematic oil. Other refined and hydrogenated fats, such as vanaspati and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, also pose serious health risks, particularly due to trans fats. Palm oil’s widespread use, however, makes it a significant contributor to unhealthy fat intake at the population level.

This balanced view avoids singling out one oil while highlighting the broader issue: excessive reliance on refined, industrial fats instead of traditional, minimally processed oils.

Red Palm Oil: Clearing the Confusion

Red palm oil is often cited as a healthier alternative because it contains beta-carotene, vitamin E, and antioxidants. While this is scientifically true, two important clarifications are necessary:

1. Red palm oil is still high in saturated fat, and excessive consumption can pose similar cardiovascular risks.

2. It is rarely used in Indian households or commercial kitchens, due to taste, color, availability, and cost.

Therefore, while nutritionally superior to refined palm oil, red palm oil does not offer a practical or ideal solution for Indian dietary needs when compared to traditional local oils.

India’s Public Health Reality: Why This Issue Matters Now

India is often referred to as the “diabetes capital of the world,” with rapidly increasing rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, Dyslipidemia [abnormal level of fats (lipids) in the blood, meaning too much LDL (bad cholesterol) or triglycerides, or too little HDL (good cholesterol), significantly raising the risk for heart disease and stroke], hypertension, and heart disease. These conditions are closely linked to dietary patterns high in refined carbohydrates, sugars, and unhealthy fats.

The shift from home-cooked meals using traditional oils to processed foods and restaurant meals cooked in cheap refined oils has accelerated this public health crisis. Palm oil, by virtue of its affordability and scale of use, has become a structural contributor to this problem, not because it is uniquely toxic, but because it is consumed frequently, unknowingly, and in excess.

Environmental Impact

Large-scale palm oil cultivation has driven extensive deforestation in tropical regions, replacing biodiverse rainforests with monoculture plantations. These forests once acted as vital carbon sinks, regulated regional climates, and supported countless plant and animal species. Their destruction leads to habitat loss, species extinction, and long-term ecological imbalance.

Forest clearing for palm plantations releases massive amounts of stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In many regions, palm oil expansion also involves the destruction of peatlands, which store exceptionally high levels of carbon. When drained or burned, peatlands emit large quantities of carbon dioxide and methane, significantly accelerating global climate change. These environmental disruptions do not remain local; India experiences their consequences through erratic monsoon patterns, rising temperatures, floods, droughts, and increasing agricultural instability.

Monoculture palm plantations further degrade soil health and contaminate water bodies due to heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, affecting ecosystems and surrounding communities. Indigenous and forest-dependent populations are often displaced, losing traditional livelihoods, cultural identity, and food security.

Although palm oil cultivation largely occurs outside India, Indian consumption directly influences global demand. Environmental responsibility does not stop at national borders. Every food choice made in India has ecological consequences elsewhere, making sustainable consumption an essential part of global environmental stewardship.

The Indian Economic and Policy Dimension (A Critical but Often Ignored Aspect)

Dependence on Imports

India is one of the largest importers of palm oil in the world, spending significant foreign exchange each year. This dependence exposes the country to global price volatility and supply chain disruptions. In response to this dependence on imports, India has increasingly turned to domestic oil palm cultivation as a policy solution, but the outcomes on the ground reveal a far more complex and troubling reality.

India’s Push for Domestic Oil Palm: A Troubling Experiment in the Northeast

In response to rising edible oil import bills and increasing vulnerability to global supply disruptions, the Indian government has promoted domestic oil palm cultivation as a pathway toward self-sufficiency. This ambition took concrete shape through the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), a centrally sponsored scheme aimed at rapidly expanding oil palm plantations across the country.

Under this mission, India plans to increase the area under oil palm cultivation from about 3.5 lakh hectares in 2019–20 to one million hectares by 2025–26. More than half of this proposed expansion is concentrated in the Northeastern states, which policy planners have identified as a potential new frontier for palm oil cultivation. This designation, however, largely overlooks the region’s fragile ecology, hilly terrain, and deeply rooted systems of community land ownership.

While the mission’s objectives appear ambitious on paper, the lived reality in the Northeast tells a far more troubling story.

Land, Livelihoods, and Tribal Societies at Risk

Land lies at the heart of the oil palm controversy in the Northeast. Unlike much of mainland India, land here is often owned and managed collectively, governed by customary laws, and closely interwoven with tribal identity, food security, and social organisation. For generations, these lands have supported subsistence farming, shifting cultivation, and diverse food systems adapted to local ecological conditions.

Oil palm cultivation, however, represents a fundamental departure from these traditions. It is a capital-intensive monoculture crop with a long gestation period. Once planted, land is effectively locked in for 25 to 30 years, beginning with an initial four to five years during which farmers earn little or no income. In a region where land is scarce and livelihoods depend on flexibility and diversity, this long-term lock-in has profound consequences.

Experiences from states such as Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland indicate that oil palm expansion is already reshaping land relations. Community land is increasingly being converted into de facto private holdings, often consolidated by wealthier individuals with the financial capacity to absorb early losses. Small and marginal farmers, unable to sustain repeated setbacks, are being pushed to the margins, with some ultimately forced to sell their land after incurring heavy debts. Over time, this erosion of customary land systems risks deepening inequality and triggering social tensions within tribal societies.

Environmental Unsuitability and Ecological Damage

Oil palm thrives best in flat landscapes with abundant water and high nutrient availability. Much of Northeast India, by contrast, is mountainous, forested, and ecologically sensitive, making it poorly suited for large-scale oil palm plantations.

Mizoram, the first northeastern state to introduce oil palm cultivation in the early 2000s, offers a particularly instructive example. Nearly two decades of experience reveal persistent environmental challenges, including declining soil fertility, depletion of groundwater resources, and increasing dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The replacement of diverse cropping systems with monoculture plantations has also led to a reduction in local biodiversity.

Rather than strengthening ecological resilience or farmer livelihoods, many plantations have left behind degraded land that is difficult to restore for food production, undermining both environmental sustainability and long-term food security.

Economic Failures and Farmer Distress

The economic model underpinning oil palm cultivation has proven equally problematic. Fresh fruit bunches must be processed within 24 to 48 hours of harvest, yet many plantations are located in remote areas with poor road connectivity and limited access to nearby processing mills. This logistical gap has resulted in frequent delays in collection, rejection or downgrading of produce based on quality assessments controlled by companies, and significant financial losses for farmers.

Compounding these challenges, several private companies involved in oil palm procurement have failed to honour their commitments, offering prices far lower than initially promised or delaying payments for extended periods. Government subsidies, which are critical during the long non-productive years of the crop, have often been delayed, reduced, or discontinued altogether. As a result, oil palm cultivation has become viable primarily for those with deep financial reserves, reinforcing existing inequalities rather than promoting inclusive rural development.

A Policy Contradiction

Ironically, even the government’s own projections do not suggest that domestic oil palm cultivation will make India self-sufficient in edible oils. The scale of land required, combined with the ecological costs and social disruptions involved, far outweighs the anticipated gains. Recognising these risks, states such as Sikkim and Meghalaya have chosen to stay away from oil palm cultivation altogether.

The longer experience of Mizoram stands as a cautionary tale, while early patterns emerging in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland point toward similar trajectories of land consolidation and farmer distress. Together, these experiences raise serious questions about the wisdom of promoting oil palm in ecologically fragile and socially complex regions.

Rethinking the Path to Self-Sufficiency

India’s edible oil crisis is real, but oil palm is not the solution it is often portrayed to be. A more sustainable and resilient path lies in revitalising traditional oilseed crops such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, coconut, and sunflower, supporting regionally appropriate crops suited to local ecological conditions, strengthening decentralised processing systems and farmer cooperatives, and reducing excessive dependence on refined industrial oils.

Encouraging oil palm cultivation in the Northeast risks repeating global patterns of environmental degradation, social displacement, and long-term economic vulnerability, this time within India’s own borders. A genuine pursuit of self-sufficiency must align agricultural policy with ecological realities, social justice, and the livelihoods of those who depend most directly on the land.

Impact on Traditional Oilseed Farmers Across India

Beyond ecological and social concerns, the dominance of imported palm oil has also reshaped India’s agricultural economy. The steady influx of cheaper palm oil has undermined farmers cultivating traditional oilseeds, such as groundnuts, mustard, sesame, sunflowers, and coconuts. Depressed prices and declining demand discourage cultivation, erode farm incomes, and weaken rural livelihoods across the country. Over time, this has hollowed out India’s domestic oilseed economy, increased dependence on imports, and reduced agricultural self-reliance, despite the country’s long history of edible oil diversity and traditional self-sufficiency.

Economic Sustainability

Promoting domestic oilseeds is not just a health or cultural issue—it is an economic necessity. Strengthening local oil production enhances farmer income, reduces import bills, and supports rural economies.

Traditional Indian Oils: Nutrition, Culture, and Sustainability

India’s traditional oils evolved through centuries of dietary wisdom, regional ecology, and seasonal availability. Cold-pressed and traditionally extracted oils retain beneficial fatty acids, antioxidants, and micronutrients.

Mustard oil supports heart health, sesame oil offers antioxidant protection, groundnut oil provides balanced fats, coconut oil suits tropical metabolism when used moderately, and rice bran oil contains bioactive compounds beneficial for cholesterol regulation.

These oils align with local agriculture, cultural food practices, and environmental sustainability, making them superior choices for long-term health and national resilience.

Shared Responsibility: Creating Meaningful Change

Consumers

Awareness, label reading, preference for home cooking, and conscious oil choices are essential.

Schools and Educational Institutions

Nutrition education should include practical lessons on oils, fats, and traditional food systems, shaping healthier habits from childhood.

Hotels and Food Industry

Transparency in oil usage, reduction of repeated frying, and gradual transition to healthier oils can significantly improve public health outcomes.

Government and Policy Makers

Clear labeling laws, limits on harmful fats, support for local oilseed farmers, and public awareness campaigns are crucial. Food policy must integrate health, environment, and economic sustainability.

                        Palm oil is not merely a dietary ingredient, it is a symbol of how modern food systems prioritize short-term affordability over long-term well-being. Addressing its impacts requires systemic change, not fear-based messaging.

India must move toward a food future that values traditional wisdom supported by modern science, supports farmers, protects ecosystems, and prioritizes public health. Choosing local, traditional oils is a simple yet powerful step in this direction.

The food we cook today shapes the health of our children, the resilience of our farmers, and the sustainability of our planet tomorrow. Reclaiming our oils is, ultimately, about reclaiming control over our health and our future.