The pace of development of the woody oil industry will be further accelerated

The State Council Office recently issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Woody Oil Industry", deploying efforts to accelerate the development of the woody oil industry, greatly increase the supply of healthy and high-quality edible vegetable oil, and effectively safeguard national grain and oil security. It proposed that by 2020, 800 key counties for woody oil crops such as oil-tea camellia, walnut, and oilseed peony be built, and the planting area of woody oil tree species be expanded from the existing 120 million mu to 200 million mu. Yang Dong, deputy director of the Development Planning and Fund Management Department of the State Forestry Administration, pointed out on the 2nd while interpreting the "Opinions" as a guest on the Chinese government website that China has nearly 600 million mu of suitable forest wasteland and barren hills as well as large areas of saline-alkali land and sandy wasteland. Vigorously developing woody oil crops on such land neither competes with grain for land nor effectively increases the domestic supply of edible vegetable oil, and is of great significance for increasing farmers' incomes, supporting the development of impoverished areas, strengthening ecological civilization construction, and improving the health of the people.

According to the introduction, China's consumption of edible vegetable oil has continued to grow, supply has fallen short, and dependence on foreign sources is relatively high. In 2013, China's output of edible vegetable oil that year was more than 28 million tons, while domestic raw material production could only meet 40%, and imports of soybeans alone reached 63.38 million tons.