On the morning of September 11, 2019, the eve of the Ethiopian New Year, Ali Abasora, in his mid-30s, was at a kiosk under Yenegew Tesfa Consumers Cooperative Union located in Wereda 03 of Kirkos District.

Located around Agona Cinema on Sierra Leone Street, the kiosk was serving six people who lined up to buy cooking oil.

As Fortunewas able to observe at the shop, there were only 10 jugs of 20lt palm oil, since the demand for the product is high, and it is sold out within two days.

Ali, who was born in Jimma town, 347Km from the capital in Oromia Regional State, but grew up in Addis Abeba, came to the shop to buy cooking oil for the New Year’s holiday.

He used to use palm oil because of its price, 127 Br for a five-litre jug of oil, but he does not buy the product anymore because of health problems. The only other oil product in the shop is five-litre jugs of Hamaressa oil, which was sold for 380 Br.

Ali, who has not purchased palm oil for the last four years, believes that using palm oil for a long time will expose people to many health problems.

He says that he has been suffering from knee pain for several years and suspects that his illness could be caused by the palm oil he had been using.

“After hearing about the side effects of using the oil from the media and my friends, I stopped using it,” he said. "Now, after I stopped using the oil, I don’t feel the pain in my knee as before.''

Besides this, palm oil condenses, according to Ali.

It it not just a rumour either. The Ethiopian Public Health Institute has also announced that palm oil can bring about long-term health effects.

"We disclosed to the public that through time, using palm oil has associated health problems," said Gezahgn Tesfaye, communications director of the Institute, which conducted research and submitted the results to the Ministry of Health.

Conducted on seven locally-produced and nine imported cooking oil products, the research focused on the quality and healthiness of the products. The findings of the study were disclosed to the public last June.

The research was conducted according to the standards set by the World Health Organization and used laboratory animals for testing, according to Ebba Abate (PhD), director of the Institute.

"Even though the locally-produced oils have production quality problems, they don’t have a negative health impact," said Ebba. "The imported oil products have a high level of saturated fatty acid and using this product, in the long run, causes cholesterol."

The Institute also plans to conduct research on the societal effects of continuously using palm oil. Yet the Ministry of Trade & Industry continues to give out permits to import the product.

There are also over 1,000 companies that are registered by the Ministry of Trade & Industry to process oil in the country, though over 912 companies import cooking oil. However, these companies are not allowed to import palm oil, which is consumed by the majority of people due to its affordability.

Following recurrent shortages of cooking oil that hit the country, in 2010 the government devised a way to remedy the problem. One of the schemes was to subsidise cooking oil and distribute it through cooperative union shops at subsidised costs.

In a bid to stabilise the market and deal with the supply problem, in 2011 the government banned private companies from importing palm oil, allowing only government-owned firms to import it. In 2015, the Ministry readjusted the regulation by allowing 10 selected private companies to import palm oil. The companies were selected based on their capacity and performance in the market.

Four endowments, five private firms, and one governmental organisation are licensed by the Ministry to import palm oil. These companies import 40 million litres of palm oil a year, mainly from Malaysia and Indonesia.

To facilitate the import of the product, the Ministry helps the selected importers get foreign currency and duty-free privileges for the oil. The imported oil is distributed through cooperative unions and the Ethiopian Fruit & Vegetable Marketing S.C. (ETfruit), across the country.