EU palm oil imports declined, figures reveal

EU member states imported significantly less palm oil in the 2024/25 marketing year than the previous year.
The decrease in demand from Spain and Italy had an especially high impact on overall figures.
From July 2024 through the end of June 2025, the EU-27 imported around 2.8 million tonnes of palm oil, representing a decline of around 692,000 tonnes or 20% on the year before.
The Netherlands was the main recipient, although the country's imports fell 2% from the previous year's volume, reaching 959,000 million tonnes.
It should be noted that ports such as Rotterdam or Amsterdam are central destinations for overseas imports and serve as ports of entry into the EU from where palm oil is shipped on to other EU member states.
The Netherlands is also an important European location for biofuel production, especially hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Italy follows as the second largest importer with an import volume of 835,000 tonnes – a year-on-year decline of 28%.
According to investigations conducted by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft, the decrease in palm oil imports to Spain was even more pronounced.
The country's imports dropped around 40% to 289,000 tonnes compared to the 2023/24 reference period.
Germany received 227,000 tonnes, around 12% less.
Belgium and Sweden also imported substantially less palm oil from abroad, with declines amounting to 11% and 30%, respectively. In contrast, Greece, Denmark and Ireland increased their imports.
Several EU member states, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, have already removed palm-oil based biofuels from eligibility for meeting national quota obligations.