How to Source African Palm Oil for the EU

Start with Côte d’Ivoire when sourcing West African palm oil for the EU. It has recorded shipments of both crude palm oil and non-crude palm oil and fractions. Use Ghana as a second quote, especially when comparing non-crude offers. Ask each seller for the exact oil grade, the identity of the mill and refinery, and the records for one bulk lot before you agree a volume.

Treat the purchase as three reviews. Your technical team checks whether the oil meets the intended use. Your customs and food safety teams check the origin-specific border requirements. Your due diligence team checks who places the product on the EU market and whether the evidence reaches the plots that supplied it. Our EU deforestation regulation overview sets out the broader obligations.

Where are EU buyers already sourcing?

The table uses 2025 EU-reported import quantities from UN Comtrade, published by the World Bank through WITS. Côte d’Ivoire was the larger of the two origins across both categories that year. The non-crude code covers multiple products. Ask the refinery to confirm the specific fraction, grade, and volume you need.

Build your shortlist around named facilities. Ask which mill supplied the fruit-derived oil, which refinery processed it and who operates the loading terminal. Confirm whether the quoted capacity belongs to that facility or to the seller’s wider network. If a trader offers to replace a mill, agree what evidence your team needs to qualify the new source.

Which palm oil are you actually buying?

Crude palm oil comes from the flesh of the oil palm fruit. Refined, bleached and deodorised palm oil is often quoted as RBD palm oil. Fractionation separates the oil into fractions such as palm olein, which is more liquid, and palm stearin, which is more solid. Palm kernel oil comes from the seed inside the fruit and has its own specification and tariff codes. The Codex Standard for Named Vegetable Oils gives you a shared vocabulary for these distinctions.

Which food safety checks apply at the EU border?

Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana have different EU border control routes for specified edible palm oil. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1206 of 9 June 2026 amended Regulation (EU) 2019/1793 of 22 October 2019. These listings were checked on 10 November 2026. Before you book, match the current annex and its footnotes to the declared origin, intended use, packaging, CN code and any TARIC subdivision.

Both entries list CN 1511 10 90, 1511 90 11, ex 1511 90 19 with TARIC subdivision 90, and 1511 90 99. The prefix “ex” narrows a listed code to the described product. For a consignment covered by either annex, coordinate the Common Health Entry Document for food and feed of non-animal origin, known as CHED-D.

Côte d’Ivoire and the direct-consumption footnote

Footnote 12 limits the Côte d’Ivoire listing to food packed for direct human consumption. If you’re buying bulk oil for refining, give your broker the product specification and packing details so they can confirm the route for that load.

Ghana and the consignment documents

For the Ghana listing, ask for the official certificate and analysis results tied to your consignment identification. Review these documents before the consignment leaves. A routine supplier certificate of analysis serves a separate commercial purpose.

Set the rest of your food safety specification around the oil and its intended use. For edible finished oil, check the applicable EU limits for processing contaminants such as 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters. Agree the analytes and test scope with your technical team. These checks address a separate hazard from Sudan dyes.

Who handles EUDR for the shipment?

Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 of 31 May 2023 covers the listed palm oil and fractions under heading 1511, refined or unrefined and without chemical modification. It lists palm kernel oil separately. The 2026 Annex I amendment also adds specified palm derivatives from 30 December 2027. Check the exact entry for the product you buy, especially for blends, derivatives and products outside heading 1511.

For oil already covered by Annex I, the general application date is 30 December 2026 for large and medium enterprises and 30 June 2027 for most micro and small enterprises. If you first place covered oil on the EU market, identify the upstream operator before contracting. That operator collects evidence of legal production and deforestation-free origin, assesses risk and submits the due diligence statement when required. If you buy oil already placed on the EU market and checked upstream, confirm your separate downstream recordkeeping duties. The first downstream buyer from the upstream operator keeps the applicable statement reference or declaration identifier.

For upstream due diligence on a mixed bulk lot, ask which plots produced the fruit that could be in the oil and request their geolocation and production dates or ranges. A mill’s GPS point locates the mill. The fruit intake records should connect each contributing delivery to the relevant production plots. Our supplier evidence guide explains how to check the plot data.

Can you trace one tank lot back to the mills?

Take one proposed load and work backwards from the dispatch paperwork. Your goal is to identify which oil could be in the load, how the quantities reconcile, and whether the test results and origin evidence cover that oil.