PALM OIL Not branched with long single stem Large spherical red - - PDF document

10/28/15 ¡ 1 ¡

PALM OIL

Lauren Gessner

What is it?

• Perennial tropical trees
• African oil palm Elaeis guineesnsis
• South and Central American oil palm Elaeis oleifera
• Not branched with long single stem
• Large spherical red fruits in bunches (200 fruits per bunch)
• Edible vegetable oil from the mesocarp of fruit of oil palms
• One of few highly saturated vegetable fats and semi-solid at

room temp.

• Common cooking ingredient in tropical belt of Africa, Southeast

Asia, Brazil, processed food ingredient, and substitute for butter, binding agent in cosmetics, can be used to produce biodiesel

• Crude vs. refined

History/Origin

• Human use dates back as far as 5,000 years
• From West Africa brought to South East Asia beginning of

20th century

• Late 1800s, archaeologists found substance that was a

palm oil tomb at Abydos dating to 3,000 BCE

• Believed the Arab traders brought palm oil to Egypt
• During Industrial Revolution, use as lubricant for

machinery by British traders

• Formed basis of soap products (Unilever, Palmolive)
• 50% of items you see in grocery store contain palm oil

Growing conditions Market/sales

• Top palm oil producing nations: Indonesia and Malaysia,

account for 85% of global palm oil production

• Indonesia: 28.4 million tons
• Malaysia: 19.2 million tons
• High demand for commercial cooking
• 50 million tons produced annually
• 25-30 year economic lifespan: become too tall to be

managed efficiently and cut down

• Over 600,000 tons exported from South-East Asia

annually

• Cardiovascular disease: decline?
• Orgagic Red Palm oil: $8.45 for 15 fl oz

10/28/15 ¡ 2 ¡ Pests, weeds, and control

• Pestalotiopsis leaf spot-tree removed and destroyed; planted

with adequate spacing for air to circulate between trees; remove weeds; fungicides

• Ganoderma butt rot-monitored and removed
• Bacterial bud rot-some varieties have resistance
• Oil palm wilt-quarantine between countries
• Rhinoceros beetle-chop and burn to kill larvae
• Mealybugs (Pineapple mealybug)-can be controlled by

natural enemies (lady beetles) and chemicals

• Axonopus compressus
• Eleusine indica
• Planted with leguminous cover crop: provides nitrogen and

suppress weeds

Transportation

• Travel long distances before consumed
• From plantations to mills in producing countries
• Then refineries in Europe
• Manufacturers/consumers in India, China, Europe,

America and rest of the world

• Internationally traded agricultural commodities,

transported by various modes: trucks, ships, trains, and airplanes (liquid cargo: temp controlled)

• Add to cost and the negative impacts on the environment
• Efficient transportation as it deteriorates in quality after crop has

been harvested and milled

Processing

• Hard fruit, must be cooked for hour
• Miniature capsules of oil that break
• Pressed to red palm oil
• Conversion of crude palm oil to refined oil:
• Removal of products of hydrolysis and oxidation, color and flavor

Economic factors

• Factors affecting prices of palm oil:
• Supply and demand of palm oil
• Price of other oils
• Weather patterns
• Importing policies/taxes
• Demand grown: plantations expanded to meet global

demand

Production costs

• RSPO Certification
• $2.59-$9.26/ha
• Ongoing certification maintenance costs= 20-33% of initial

certification costs

• Certification lasts 5 years with annual surveillance audits
• Other actions vary $3.74-$38.32/ha
• Harvest 300 bundles a day: earns a salary of 180 Honduras

lempiras~about $9.40 USD

10/28/15 ¡ 3 ¡ Sustainable?

• Use has attracted environmental concern
• High oil yield of trees encourages cultivation
• Clearing of forests in Indonesia to make room for oil-palm

monoculture: 300 football fields each hour cleared

• Deforestation
• Acreage losses of natural habitat of orangutan: 90% of

habitat destroyed in last 20 years

Sustainable? cont.

• Human rights issues/child labor
• Loss of indigenous land
• Malaysian Government pledged to limit expansion of palm
• il plantations: keep minimum of half the nation’s land as

forest cover

Organic/Conventional

• Conventionally grown, but also organically certified
• Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)
• International Sustainability and Carbon Certification

(ISCC)

Justin’s

• Palm oil prevents oils separating from nut butters
• Will be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm

Oil (RSPO)

• How complicated palm oil sourcing has become
• Market for sustainable palm oil threatened by certifications

and difficulties

• Balancing sustainability and profitability

Works Cited

• www.thefoodjourney.com
• http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/08/02/justins-nut-butter-search-

sustainable-palm-oil

• https://www.plantvillage.com/en/topics/oil-palm/infos/

diseases_and_pests_description_uses_propagation

• http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/transport-biofuels/transport/
• http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4355e/y4355e04.htm
• http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php
• http://www.americanpalmoil.com/publications/Guideline%20for

%20Handling%20and%20Storage%20of%20Palm%20Oil %20Product.pdf

• http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/standards-certfication/certification-

schemes/

• http://www.rspo.org/file/

3_StudyontheRestorationCostandReturnsfromOilPalmIndustry_Prepa redbyERE.pdf

Questions?