Vegetable Oil Market Research

What is Vegetable Oil?

Vegetable oil comes from plant oils extracted not only from vegetables but also from seeds, nuts, grains, or some types of fruits. It has wide varieties, but each is extremely versatile, serving different purposes in the kitchen, such as cooking, deep-frying, sautéing, baking, and dressing. Its purpose doesn’t end in the kitchen or the food industry. Vegetable oil is an important ingredient for many other industrial uses and livestock.

How is Vegetable Oil Made?

Modern extraction techniques can extract up to 98% of the oil content in some plants, unlike the methods available in the early times, where up to only 10% of oil could be extracted. Such techniques make oil extraction from nuts and seeds more efficient and allow different varieties of vegetable oils to be available in the market.

The extraction of vegetable oils involves a four-step process which includes the following:

Cleaning

The seeds or nuts must undergo a thorough cleaning process and then run over with magnets to remove metal traces. The skin will be removed and then crushed mechanically before being heated up.

Pressing

The heated, crushed seeds or nuts will be mechanically pressed, which extracts the oil.

Solvent Extraction

For more efficient extraction, a solvent will be added to the dissolved oil once the “oil cake” has been removed. And then, it will undergo distilling to remove the solvent.

Refining

The refinement process involves heating the oil to 85 °C and mixing it with an alkaline substance. Afterward, the oil will be treated with water or acid to degum it. The oils will then be bleached to remove the natural colors. Lastly, steam will deodorize the oils, and a small amount of citric acid will be added to eliminate trace materials that can cut short the shelf life of the oil.

Health Benefits

Some of the common vegetable oils in the market include sunflower oil, palm oil, canola oil, hazelnut oil, soybean oil, almond oil, and olive oil, to mention a few. These are known for providing many health benefits, particularly in controlling heart health.

Vegetable oils contain triglycerides like those found in animal fats like butter and lard. But, when consumed in healthy amounts, it can help manage blood cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure levels, reducing risks of cardiovascular diseases.

Some vegetable oils are rich in vitamin E, an antioxidant that promotes immunity and helps the body fight free radicals. In addition, vegetable oils may also reduce the risk of breast cancer when used regularly. Other health benefits of vegetable oils may include improving metabolism, promoting cell growth and repair, boosting moods, preventing osteoporosis, and many more.

Food Industry

Many restaurants and food businesses use vegetable oils for cooking and frying. These oils can withstand high-heat cooking, which doesn’t cause smoking and create a bitter, burnt flavor to the food. Additionally, these oils only have mild to no flavor, which doesn’t affect the taste of salad dressings, bread, cakes, and other baked goods. These make vegetable oils in demand in the food industry.

Other Industrial Uses

Vegetable oils are important ingredients in making soaps, detergents, skin care products, candles, perfumes, and other personal care items.

Some vegetable oils are also used in paint formulations and wood treatment products. These are also used as feedstocks for producing biofuels. The production of vegetable oils also makes feeds for livestock as a byproduct.

Key Job Titles

The vegetable oil industry needs various skills specializing in agriculture and garden cultivation and management. People with reputable backgrounds in engineering, science and technology, and related fields can also find a career path in this field. As the industry expands, there will be more available job titles.

Below includes some of the job key titles:

• Horticulturist
• Feedstocks Analyst
• Laboratory Technician
• Extraction Manager
• Plant Operations Manager
• Plantation General Manager
• Process Operator
• Farm Operator
• Factory Engineer
• Maintenance Mechanic

Why do Businesses Need Vegetable Oil Market Research?

Because of the high versatility, low production cost, and widespread availability of vegetable oils, their demand in the market has been continuously rising.

Vegetable oils contain triglycerides, commonly known as fats, which can be a good substitute for animal fats and petrochemicals for food and non-food applications. In line with this, the food industry is constantly expanding along with various manufacturers working on different product innovations.

For these reasons, the vegetable oil market continues to expand. Moreover, many customers have switched to vegetable oils because of their health benefits.

Vegetable oil market research can help businesses gain valuable information from the current market conditions, consumers’ insights and preferences, competitors’ strategies, and industry trends.

These can help companies to make strategic decisions in improving their product, pricing, and marketing, as well as identifying potential growth and expansion to stay competitive in the industry.

Key Success Factors

Market research is essential to identify factors that will help businesses grow and stay competitive. Businesses should focus on collecting data from reliable sources and analyzing them using appropriate statistical techniques.

An insightful analysis will help businesses gain an in-depth understanding of the current conditions and trends in the vegetable oil industry. Not only that, but businesses should also identify their specific goals to determine potential risk and growth and understand every customer’s preferences.

For businesses to create strategic decisions, it is also crucial that research must be done in a timely manner providing recommendations that help businesses make strategic decisions.

With the influence of technology in the cultivation, production, and distribution of vegetable oils, research can help evaluate its impact on the market. Most importantly, research can also help businesses understand the attitudes and preferences of customers towards vegetable oils.

About Vegetable Oil Market Research

As the vegetable market continuously grows, it is important to know its current conditions and trends through accurate data gathering and analysis to identify various factors that may affect businesses and help them stay competitive in the industry.

SIS International offers Quantitative, Qualitative, and Strategy Research. We provide data, tools, strategies, reports and insights for decision-making. We conduct interviews, surveys, focus groups and many other Market Research methods and approaches. Contact us for your next Market Research project.