Demand and Supply of Vegetable Oil Products in the United States: A Short-Run Analysis

Over the last decade consumption of vegetable oil products in the United States has increased enormously. Per capita consumption of vegetable oil products rose from 30.6 pounds in 1965 to 43.1 pounds in 1975—an increase of more than 40 percent. This expansion continues a historic trend and represents the single largest ten-year increment in the last fifty years [1, 2, 3]. The principal vegetable oils used in domestic products are soybean, cottonseed and corn oil. For this reason the increase in consumer demand for vegetable oil products over the last decade has had an important effect on the derived demand for soybeans, cottonseed and corn.