The Palm Oil Import Demand in Middle East and North African (MENA) Countries

Abstract

The palm oil import demand in selected Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, represented by 10 single equation models, have been analysed through utilizing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. The findings of the study show that the palm oil prices as well as the national income are significant determinants of palm oil demand across the 10 models. The prices of substitute oils in almost all countries have been found to play an important role in shaping the palm oil demand. Other factors such as high palm oil discount, the 1970s world petroleum prices boom, the anti-palm oil campaign, trade embargos on Libya and Iraq, and exchange rate also proved to be important factors affecting import demand for palm oil in some MENA countries.

Key Words:

• Palm oil
• import demand
• autoregressive distributed lag
• bounds test
• error correction model