Palm Oil Price History: Monthly Global Price Since 1992

Palm oil is the world’s most consumed and most traded edible oil, used across food, cosmetics, and biodiesel. Indonesia and Malaysia together supply roughly 85% of global output. It competes directly with soybean, sunflower, and rapeseed oil. This dataset tracks the IMF Primary Commodity Prices palm oil benchmark, published monthly in US dollars per metric ton and distributed via FRED under the code PPOILUSDM, with continuous coverage since 1992.

Dataset: Palm Oil Price (1992–2026) · Updated 2026-03-01

Source: IMF Primary Commodity Prices · International Monetary Fund (via FRED)

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns. Each row represents one calendar month.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats — monthly observations covering more than three decades.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is published in the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database under the series code PPOILUSDM, sourced from the IMF Primary Commodity Prices dataset:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=PPOILUSDM

The Eco3min dataset mirrors the same monthly series, packaged in a stable, versionable CSV with consistent column names — designed for direct ingestion in Python, R, or any data pipeline. The URL never changes, making it suitable for automated scripts.

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/palm-oil-price.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/palm-oil-price.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["palm_oil_price"].describe())

df.plot(x="date", y="palm_oil_price", title="Palm Oil Price", legend=False)

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/palm-oil-price.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$palm_oil_price)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

The IMF reports the palm oil price in US dollars per metric ton, based on Malaysian crude palm oil quotes (CIF North-West Europe).

Values are monthly averages, which smooth the intra-month swings visible in daily futures and physical quotes. The series begins in 1992.

This dataset is updated monthly via an automated pull from the FRED API (series PPOILUSDM) by an Eco3min pipeline running on GitHub Actions, which regenerates the cleaned CSV and Excel files and refreshes the page metadata.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

The IMF/benchmark price is a widely cited physical-market reference. A few provider-specific points matter when using this series.

• Release latency. The IMF publishes Primary Commodity Prices monthly, typically in the first week of the following month. FRED ingests the update shortly after, and Eco3min mirrors it with a monthly pull. The series is not a real-time price.
• Monthly average vs futures spot. This series is a monthly average. It will differ from any single exchange settlement, and a monthly average necessarily understates intra-month peaks.
• Revisions. Prices are market-derived and not subject to the vintage revisions of survey-based macro series, though the IMF can restate recent observations.
• Alternative sources. ICE futures and the originating auction or indicator bodies provide higher-frequency or contract-specific quotes.

Common Pitfalls When Using This Series

1. Confusing nominal and real prices. This series is nominal. Comparing an early-1990s reading to a recent one without adjusting for cumulative inflation overstates the real change. Deflating by CPI gives the true purchasing-power move.
2. Reading the monthly average as a market price. Headlines quote exchange futures; this dataset reports the monthly benchmark average. The two diverge most during fast-moving rallies.
3. Unit confusion. This series is in US dollars per metric ton; Bursa Malaysia futures are quoted in Malaysian ringgit per tonne, so headline ringgit prices are not directly comparable without the exchange rate.

Historical Regimes

1992–2005 — Plantation expansion. Rapid Indonesian and Malaysian expansion kept prices moderate, often $300-500 per ton.

2006–2008 — Commodity boom. Biofuel demand and the broad commodity boom lifted palm oil above $1,000 per ton in 2008 before the financial-crisis collapse.

2009–2013 — Recovery. Chinese and Indian demand and biodiesel mandates carried prices back toward $1,000-1,250 per ton.

2014–2019 — Surplus and EU pressure. Oversupply and EU deforestation concerns pushed prices to a multi-year low near $435 per ton in late 2018.

2020–2021 — Pandemic rebound. Malaysian labour shortages and firm biodiesel demand lifted prices sharply.

2022 — All-time record. The Ukraine war, South American drought, and Indonesia’s export ban drove palm oil to an all-time high around $1,650 per ton in March 2022.

2023–2026 — Correction and biodiesel support. Easing edible-oil tightness pulled prices lower, while higher Indonesian and Malaysian biodiesel mandates provided a floor.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Commodity Price Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min commodity price repository — energy, metals, agricultural softs, and grains, all sourced from IMF Primary Commodity Prices via FRED.

Explore the Commodity Price Hub

Sources

• International Monetary Fund — Primary Commodity Prices, Global Price of Palm Oil
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — FRED database, series PPOILUSDM
• Malaysian Palm Oil Board and Bursa Malaysia CPO quotations — basis underlying the IMF series

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). Palm Oil Price — Global Monthly Price (1992-2026). Source: IMF Primary Commodity Prices via FRED.<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/palm-oil-price-history-dataset/