Oil Palm Plantation

Oil palm was introduced to Malaysia in 1910 by Scotsman Williams Sime and English Banker Henry Darby. In December 2006, the world's largest listed oil palm plantation valued at RM31 billion. With 543 thousand hectares of plantation landbank, the new oil palm plantation could produce 2.5 million tons of palm oil which was 5% of global production in 2006.

The male and female parts are together in one tree. Bees help to pollinate the tree. Fruit cross-section: Yellow outer part is oil, white inner part is the kernel. This can be used to make cosmetics. Pahat : stick to clean dirt around the tree. A sharp tool. After 4 years of planting, the worker will check if the tree is ready for harvest. If he cuts a leaf of a tree and more than 5 fruits drops, the tree is ready for harvesting. In a month, one tree can be harvested 3 times. After 25 years, the tree will be too tall to be harvested. So after 5 years, the tree is cut down.

Processing of Fruitlets
Fruitlets are sterilised at 150 degrees with steam. Then the fruitlets are put under pressure so oil will come out. The oil then needs to be purified. Since steaming uses water, the oil has to be seperated from the water using vacuum. The bunches from fruitlets can be burnt to make fertilisers or generate electricity. The mill only processes crude palm oil. If we want to make cooking oil, the crude oil has to be brought to a seperate factory to be processed. Whatever that comes out of the mill is 20% of what orginally went in.