Course 14 of 20 · Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy

Vegetable Oils & Substitution

Stage D, Complex specialisation and optionality. Level 7 of 10.

The vegetable oil complex and cross-oil substitution: palm, rapeseed, sunflower and soy oil spreads, refining and degumming grades, origin logistics, and switching between food and fuel demand.

123 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 03, Course 08, Course 13

Enrol or enquire See the 123 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 123 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 One Complex, Four Oils and a Switching Decision Ch 1-10
  1. What a Vegetable Oil Trading Desk Decides
  2. Why Palm, Rapeseed, Sunflower and Soy Oil Price as One Complex
  3. Every Oil Has Two Outlets Competing for the Same Tonne
  4. Substitution Carries a Switching Cost and Is Never Free
  5. Where the Refining Step Sits Between Mill and Food Plant
  6. The Oil Trader's Seat: Long a Grade, Short a Specification
  7. Soy Oil Arrives Already Priced by the Crush
  8. Fuel Demand as an Outlet, Not a Policy Regime
  9. Three Questions Before Quoting a Cross-Oil Difference
  10. One Palm Parcel Followed From Fruit Bunch to Frying Vat
M1 The Oils, Their Origins and Their Outlets Ch 11-22
  1. Palm Oil as the Volume Anchor of the Complex
  2. The Lauric Oils Sit Outside the Soft Oil Pool
  3. Rapeseed Oil and the Northern European Food Chain
  4. Sunflower Oil and the Black Sea Origin Position
  5. Soy Oil's Own Market Beneath the Protein Trade
  6. Cottonseed, Groundnut and the By-Product Oils
  7. Corn and Rice Bran Oil From a Milling Stream
  8. Olive Oil and the Oils Priced Outside the Complex
  9. Why Four Oils Carry the Complex and the Rest Follow
  10. The Oil Palm Yields Every Month of the Year
  11. Annual Oilseed Harvests and the Window They Open
  12. Reading the Complex as One Balance Across Four Oils
M2 Refining Grades as a Priced Progression Ch 23-35
  1. Crude Oil as It Leaves the Mill or the Press
  2. Degumming and the Phosphatide Stream It Removes
  3. Neutralisation and the Free Fatty Acid It Strips
  4. Bleaching and the Colour Specification It Buys
  5. Deodorisation and the Finished Refined Grade
  6. Physical and Chemical Refining as Two Commercial Routes
  7. Fractionation and the Olein and Stearin It Separates
  8. Hydrogenation and Interesterification as Texture Steps
  9. Winterisation and the Clear Bottle a Retailer Wants
  10. Refining Loss and the Party That Pays for It
  11. By-Product Streams Inside the Refining Yield
  12. Pricing the Same Oil at Crude and at Refined
  13. A Worked Refining Yield on One Palm Parcel
M3 Where Substitution Is Real and Where It Is Blocked Ch 36-46
  1. The Frying Oil Buyer Who Can Genuinely Switch
  2. Melting Behaviour as the First Technical Bound
  3. The Bakery Hard Fat Requirement That Blocks a Switch
  4. Confectionery Fats and the Cocoa Butter Boundary
  5. Oxidative Stability and the Shelf Life a Brand Buys
  6. The Recipe Lock: Labelling and Claim as a Barrier
  7. Approval and Trial Time as a Cost of Switching
  8. The Oleochemical Buyer's Chain Length Specification
  9. Animal Feed as the Outlet Beneath the Complex
  10. Ranking Four Oils Against One Buyer's Requirement
  11. A Worked Switch at a Food Plant, Illustrative
M4 The Cross-Oil Spread and the Band Around It Ch 47-58
  1. A Cross-Oil Spread Defined on a Common Basis
  2. Translating Two Quotations Onto One Unit and Port
  3. The Switching Cost Band Around a Spread
  4. Why the Spread Is Bounded Rather Than Pinned
  5. When a Spread Moves Outside the Switching Band
  6. The Palm and Soy Oil Spread and What Sets It
  7. The Rapeseed Premium Over the Rest of the Complex
  8. The Sunflower Differential and Its Origin Concentration
  9. The Olein and Stearin Spread Inside One Oil
  10. The Crude and Refined Differential as a Tolling Signal
  11. Seasonality in a Cross-Oil Spread
  12. Reading the Whole Spread Matrix at One Sitting
M5 The Food and Fuel Outlet Contest Ch 59-70
  1. Two Outlets Bidding for the Same Tonne of Oil
  2. A Blending Mandate Seen as a Demand Floor
  3. Indonesia's Domestic Blending Programme and Export Availability
  4. The European Framework and the Oil It Redirects
  5. United States Programmes and the Oil They Draw In
  6. Export Levies and Duties as a Switch at the Border
  7. Sustainability Rules as a Condition of Access
  8. Why the Fuel Bid Does Not Always Set a Floor
  9. The Durable Mandate Demand Argument and Its Assumptions
  10. The Case That Food Demand Reclaims the Tonne
  11. Cane Ethanol Parity Is a Different Switch
  12. A Worked Outlet Comparison for One Palm Parcel
M6 Origin Logistics and the Constraints on a Parcel Ch 71-81
  1. The Minimum Parcel a Liquid Oil Trades In
  2. Shore Tank Segregation at a Loading Port
  3. Previous Cargo Restrictions on a Parcel Tanker
  4. Heated Carriage and the Oil That Solidifies
  5. Coated and Stainless Tanks and the Grades They Permit
  6. Why Vessel Choice Narrows the Grade on Offer
  7. Origin Infrastructure at a Palm Loading Terminal
  8. Black Sea Loading and the Sunflower Oil Chain
  9. Destination Refining Capability as a Substitution Bound
  10. Transit Time and the Quality Clock on a Parcel
  11. A Switch on Paper That Fails in the Tank
M7 Demand Centres and the Buyers Who Switch Ch 82-91
  1. India as the Swing Import Buyer of the Complex
  2. The Indian Duty Structure and the Oil It Favours
  3. China's Crush and the Oil Behind Its Protein Demand
  4. The European Food Processor's Specification Habit
  5. Import Demand Across the Middle East and North Africa
  6. Branded Consumer Oil and the Switch a Pack Blocks
  7. Industrial Buyers Who Can Switch Within a Month
  8. The Catering and Frying Pool and Its Turnover
  9. Who Holds the Switching Option and Who Granted It
  10. Mapping the Complex's Demand by How Fast It Switches
M8 Measuring Substitution and Its Limits Ch 92-102
  1. Substitution Elasticity Defined for One Pair of Oils
  2. Estimating a Switching Response From Trade Data
  3. Why the Estimate Moves With the Period Chosen
  4. The Stable Elasticity Argument and Its Assumptions
  5. The Regime-Dependent Substitution Case and Its Assumptions
  6. Blend Ratios as the Real Unit of Switching
  7. The Marginal Tonne Rather Than the Whole Pool
  8. Asymmetric Switching: Easier Out Than Back
  9. Price Transmission Across the Complex and Its Lag
  10. What a Correlation Between Two Oils Does Not Prove
  11. Building a Substitution Map a Desk Will Actually Use
M9 The Switching Right Inside a Contract Ch 103-113
  1. The Oil Substitution Right Written Into a Supply Contract
  2. Valuing a Switching Right by Averaging the Payoffs
  3. Why Flooring an Averaged Spread Misprices the Right
  4. The Tolerance Clause That Lets a Seller Choose
  5. A Blend Specification Contract Against a Single Oil Contract
  6. Pricing a Multi-Origin Supply Programme
  7. The Grade a Seller May Tender and What It Costs the Buyer
  8. Nominating the Oil Late and What the Delay Is Worth
  9. The Cost of Holding Optionality in Shore Tank
  10. Cross-Oil Exposure Handed to the Hedge Desk
  11. A Worked Multi-Oil Supply Programme, Illustrative
M10 The Complex End to End and Its Honest Limits Ch 114-123
  1. An Integrated Oil Year, Part One: The Book and the Slate
  2. An Integrated Oil Year, Part Two: A Switch Through a Tight Quarter
  3. An Integrated Oil Year, Part Three: Reconciling the Result
  4. The Complex Board a Desk Publishes Each Morning
  5. Presenting a Switch That Lost Against the One Not Taken
  6. The Substitution Errors That Recur on This Desk
  7. A Case Where the Switching Band Misled the Desk
  8. What a Switching Cost Band Cannot Tell You
  9. Where the One-Oil-at-a-Time Treatment Breaks Down
  10. Where the Oil Parcel Goes After the Switch Is Decided

The brochure gives each of these 123 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 14 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Agricultural Commodities Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway