Palm Oil Posts Its Longest Quarterly Slump on Record
- Malaysian benchmark futures drop for seventh straight quarter
- Futures pressured by concern over supply, exports, trade war
A worker loads palm fruit onto the back of a truck at a palm oil plantation in Malaysia.
Photographer: Sanjit Das/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Palm oil’s stuck in a rut and unlikely to escape anytime soon.
Benchmark futures capped a 7.4% loss this quarter as the world’s most-used edible oil grapples with persistently high stockpiles in the top growers amid lackluster demand. Its performance is in stark contrast to the Bloomberg agricultural spot price index, which is on course for the best quarterly gain in three years thanks to planting disruptions caused by record U.S. rainfall.