Palm kernel Oil

Cultivation & yield

Oil palms are three times as productive as rapeseed and take up about 1/6 of the area of soya for the same yield. The main areas of cultivation today are Western Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil and Colombia. Harvesting begins when the fruit begins to fall out of the fruit bunches. The fruit bunches are then cut off with knives. The bunches contain up to 2000 individual fruits, with a hard core surrounded by soft fruit flesh. Palm kernel oil is extracted from the kernel, palm oil from the previously pitted fruit flesh.

In contrast to the fruit flesh, the seeds (kernels) are extremely hard (and thus storable), so that the oil does not have to be extracted at the place of harvest. The oil content is 46-53% and the oil is obtained after drying, crushing and conditioning by pressing or by flaking and extraction. After refining, the raw palm kernel oil (or fat, depending on the temperature), which is solid at room temperature, yellowish-brown in color, has a characteristic smell and taste and is a solid, white to yellowish colored oil with a typically neutral, pleasant taste.

Its origin is believed to be in the tropics of East America and West Africa. It is proven that as early as the 15th century, the inhabitants of West and Central Africa extracted the oil from the fruits. Oil palms were first reported in Europe in 1443 by the Portuguese sailor Gil Eannes. It was not until 1850 that the oil was imported into Europe in order to compensate for the growing population's need for fat. With the invention of margarine around 1869 and the further increasing use of vegetable fats, demand rose again. This resulted in the increased cultivation of the plant, so that today the crops are spread over the tropics all over the world.