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10/28/15
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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
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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
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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
oil 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_PreparedbyERE.pdf
Questions?