Hearty oil.

Crude isn't the only oil in Colombia. Colombia has become the largest producer of palm oil in Latin America and the fifth largest in the world, trailing Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Thailand. Palm oil can only come from moist, tropical locations. Since Colombia hosts such a climate, palm oil sales have flourished into a US$350 million industry, accounting for 1.5% of gross domestic product, according to Fedepalma, a trade association for the Colombian palm-oil industry.

Palm oil trails only soy as the source of the world's leading cooking oil, and in Colombia, the industry hopes demand grows at home and abroad, especially in the United States, which producers here see as a developing export market. "When you see that palm oil accounts for 25% of the global cooking-oil market, you'll be surprised to learn that the United States accounts for just 1%," says Fedepalma President Jens Mesa. "The United States has really never consumed palm oil, so why not launch a strong campaign to tackle this foreign market?" By comparison, palm oil represents 30% of the European cooking-oil market, according to Fedepalma.

Soy producers in the United States have fought a decades-long attack against palm-oil producers, accusing them of selling products that are bad for the cardiovascular system, Mesa says. "Such campaigns are ill intentioned, based largely on studies made on animal fats and their conclusions take aim at the palm" Mesa says. The American Heart Association, however, recommends reduced palm-oil consumption.