Castor oil: From premium crop to biofuel feedstock

The current oil crisis is accelerating the urgency to address a long-recognised energy challenge of providing reliable biofuel alternatives at scale. The Strait of Hormuz conflict has caused Brent crude prices to surge—with a staggering 65% jump in March 2026 and prices peaking at nearly $128 (€112) a barrel in April and markets remain volatile today. Biofuels need another source of feedstock and quickly.
The geopolitical situation is not creating the problem; it is exposing a feedstock landscape that was already under strain. Used cooking oil, palm oil, soybean oil, and rapeseed oil have been the main sources for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel production, but competition for those resources has intensified considerably as production capacity expands globally.
Each carries its own limitations: finite waste streams, food crop competition, land-use constraints and in the case of palm and soy, regulatory exclusion from EU biofuel mandates.
The sector needs non-food feedstocks that can be produced at scale, in geographically distributed locations and outside the supply chains the recent conflict has exposed as vulnerable.
Castor oil has long been considered a promising but underutilised feedstock. With a global market of under one million tonnes annually — valued at approximately $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) — it remains a niche premium industrial oil, priced at $1400–$1600 per tonne (€1226-€1401), significantly above competing vegetable oils. Its unique chemical properties make it irreplaceable across a range of industries: cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, coatings and adhesives, lubricants, polyurethanes and nylon 11 production.

Market growth

Non-edible, drought-tolerant and requiring low agricultural inputs, it also carries a certified pathway to SAF under international aviation fuel standards. The potential market for castor as a biofuel feedstock alone is enormous, currently estimated at 20 million tonnes, which is 20 times current global production.
The reason it has not made that leap comes down to farming economics. Castor cultivation is currently concentrated in India, dependent on family-based smallholder farming unchanged for generations. Indian varieties are manually harvested, ripen unevenly and require long growing cycles with several selective harvest passes, a model that works at village scale, but breaks entirely at commercial scale. Farming accounts for approximately 90% of total production cost, keeping castor oil prices too high to compete as a commodity feedstock for biofuels. The crop’s potential has been well understood for years; there just has not been a cultivation system to deliver it at scale.

A new approach to an old crop

In order to tackle this challenge Casterra has developed elite castor seed varieties engineered for uniform maturation so that an entire crop reaches harvest-readiness simultaneously, enabling a single mechanical pass.
By combining these seed varieties with tailored harvesting machinery and an integrated agronomy protocol, the company has been able to bring farming costs down to less than $1000 (€876) per tonne, making castor oil competitive as a commodity biofuel feedstock.
Casterra’s recent commercial-scale field trials in Brazil across 74 hectares in Bahia state — conducted under both rainfed and irrigated conditions with full operational cost data collected — proved that this is achievable at scale.
Brazil is an ideal location for cultivating castor oil due to its deep farming infrastructure, established biofuel policy framework and millions of hectares available for second-crop rotation.
Castor’s low water requirements also make it well suited to the Safrinha season where second crops are planted after the main soybean crop, utilising the end of the rainy season and giving large-scale landholders an additional revenue crop without displacing food production or requiring dedicated acreage.
Brazil is just one of several regions where castor oil shows strong potential under commercial-scale farming. Other regions with significant castor farming potential are Argentina, Africa, Australia and the southern parts of Eastern Europe, pointing to a geographically diversified supply chain in the making. As production scales across multiple geographies, the range of applications becomes increasingly viable. Castor-derived biofuel is non-edible and can be produced outside traditional supply chains, making it a viable candidate for renewable diesel, bio-based plastics and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Castor Oil’s SAF potential

Unlike road transport, where electrification is advancing rapidly, aviation has no viable battery alternative at commercial scale for the foreseeable future. Under ReFuelEU Aviation, EU mandates require 2% SAF blending from 2025, with the mandated share rising to 70% by 2050.
Combined with a conventional jet fuel supply acutely disrupted by the recent conflict, the need for certified, scalable SAF feedstocks has never been more urgent.
Castor-derived bio jet has a certified production pathway under international aviation fuel standards and with commercial-scale production now demonstrated, castor oil is well-positioned to become a meaningful part of the renewable fuel supply chain.

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