In fact West African countries have a centuries old method of making soap from locally available material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_black_soap
And one could argue that plant ash isn't the most sustainable source of base in making soap.
https://oec.world/en/profile/hs92/palm-oil
But maybe not being well represented here indicates a healthy domestic market.
(and this data can be suspect: Netherlands aren't growing any, but might do some processing of some kind or re-export)
https://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=palm-oil shows 84% of production being from Indonesia and Malaysia.