DRYING OILS REPRESENT A SMALL PORTION of the huge fats and oils industry.2 In 1987 there were 81 000 metric tons (-178 million pounds) of drying oils consumed in the United States [1]. With an expected annual average growth rate of 2.6%, there should have been 92 000 metric tons consumed in 1992. Such consumption represents about 3% of the total nonfood fats and oils market and about 1 % of the combined food and nonfood fats and oils national market. The industry is very mature with relatively little growth expected. Within this industry, whose growth is about the same as the population growth of the United States, drying oil consumption, though relatively very small, has the highest expected growth rate over the above five-year period. The paint and coating industry's need for drying oils is in an overall decline along with other end use markets, such as binders for hardboard, sealants, plasticizers, linoleum, and core oils. Drying oils used in paints and coatings are being replaced with oil-free, synthetic, petroleum-derived oligomeric and polymeric binders carried in a variety of media or in a neat manner. The printing ink market is the only one expected to have small growth in the area of drying oils.