Their concern is associated with the growing consumption of palm oil in our country. However, this does not in any way affect the use of this product. The latest data from Rosstat show that since the beginning of this year, the growth of its imports into the Russian Federation has assumed an incredible scale.

In January-April, palm oil and its fractions were imported to the country by 26.3% compared to the same period of the previous year, which is about 335 thousand. t in natural expression. Fears of experts regarding the increase in palm oil consumption are due to the fact that due to the high content of saturated fatty acids in its composition (about 50%), it contributes to the increase of blood cholesterol level. We note that in olive and sunflower oil, the mass fraction of fatty acids is 10% and 14%, respectively. In addition, palm oil is poorly absorbed by the child's body and can cause allergies. The sharp increase in imports of palm oil runs counter to the government's attempts to reduce its consumption in the country. For several years, the government has been considering the possibility of adopting appropriate legislation regulating the import and use of palm oil, but so far no specific decisions on this issue have been made. According to experts, this is due to lobbying efforts by Russian consumers of this product. What is going on and why is the import of this not very useful product so rapidly growing? There are several answers to this question at once. The first and the simplest, presumably, is connected with the execution of the contract with Indonesia on the supply of 11 multifunctional Su-35 fighters to this country, concluded this spring. In accordance with the terms of the contract worth about $ 1.1 billion, half of Russian supplies will be paid not for money, but for Indonesian goods. Under Indonesian law, the supply of modern aircraft technology is linked to offset obligations and counter trade. The main nomenclature of Indonesian exports includes rubber and all the same palm oil. This is far from the first agreement, as a result of which Indonesia pays them for the latest military equipment. The second explanation for the growing consumption of palm oil in the Russian Federation is associated with serious changes in the Russian food industry, caused by the introduced in 2014. food embargo. Claims that the ban on the importation of food from the US and the EU led to a boom in domestic food production, are only partially true. In fact, it was only the large agroholdings and industrial complexes that really managed to increase production. And here the key role was played by the same palm oil. It is technologically efficient to use it as a substitute for animal fats only in conditions of large and extra large-scale production. Elimination of foreign competitors unleashed the hands of such companies, in the shortest time filled the market with relatively inexpensive products created with the use of a large number of "palm trees". The quality of such products turned out to be relatively low, but in the absence of comparable high-quality imported products, the factories using "palm" managed to completely undermine the market. A collateral negative effect of this process was also the knocking out of the market of small domestic producers and farmers who hoped that the food embargo would allow them to increase their own sales. In fact, everything happened exactly the opposite. Because of the inability to implement the "palm" maneuver in view of the small scale of production, most of them were forced to leave the market.

At present, the "palm" trend continues to develop actively. And judging by the growing volume of purchases, we do not have to talk about its imminent completion.