Prices set to rise in Asia

Palm oil, the world's most-used cooking oil, is also the cheapest, a discrepancy that won't last long as demand rises across Asia's biggest countries.

An ingredient in curries, stir-fries and Skittles candy, Malaysian palm oil costs 15 per cent less than soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Tobin Gorey, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, said the two may soon be even money, raising the prospect of at least a $1.5 million profit from a $10 million investment.

As consumption rises, supply in China may drop after the worst snowstorms in five decades damaged rapeseed crops in January, the government reported.

"We may have a case of mass shortage of vegetable oil in China,'' said Rudolphe Roche, a manager at Schroders $6 billion agricultural commodities fund in London.