LONDON—Soybean oil prices soared to a record high on Friday as Indonesia’s decision to effectively ban exports of palm oil heightened concerns about already depleted global supplies of alternative vegetable oils.
The loss of shipments from Ukraine, the world’s top supplier of sunflower oil, and drought in the world’s top soybean oil exporter Argentina had already sparked a sharp rise in global vegetable oil prices.
The tightening vegetable oil supplies come as easing COVID-19 restrictions have sparked a surge in demand for food and biofuels.
Soybean oil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade rose to a peak of 83.21 cents per lb on Friday, up 4.5 percent on the day and a record high, before pulling back to 81.42—still a record for the most actively traded futures contract. Prices have now risen by almost 50 percent so far this year.
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